German air‑traffic authorities scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday to escort a commercial aircraft travelling from the Greek island of Corfu to Nuremberg after the pilot’s radio transmission was interpreted as a hijack alert.
The aircraft, which was on a routine international flight, sent a message that triggered the hijack warning in the air‑traffic control system. In response, German military units dispatched fighter jets to intercept and accompany the plane while the situation was assessed.
Within minutes, the fighter jets reached the aircraft and escorted it through German airspace. Controllers maintained constant communication with the pilot, who confirmed that no hijacking was in progress.
Subsequent investigations revealed that a radio glitch, rather than an intentional hijack declaration, caused the false alarm. The pilot’s transmission had been misread by the monitoring system, leading to the rapid deployment of the interceptors.
German authorities noted that the swift response reflects standard security protocols for any perceived threat to civil aviation, and they emphasized that the flight completed its journey to Nuremberg without further incident.
<small>Source: Al Jazeera — read the original story there.</small>