Thursday, August 27, 2009

Air Force jet intercepts Air France plane

A
n Indian Airforce fighter jet intercepted an Air France plane on Thursday over an error in the communication code.

The incident took place early in the morning at Amritsar where the IAF radars picked up signals that indicated an unknown aircraft.

A MiG-29 fighter jet was immediately sent to intercept the unknown aircraft, but it finally turned out to be an Air France flight from Paris to Bangkok which was using an incorrect communication code.

The IAF jet was then asked to break off and return to base. A report has now been sent to the Airports Authority of India.

Such incidents have been reported earlier as well. On August 27, 2009, at approximately 0610 hrs IST, one aircraft was picked up by IAF radars, southeast of Amritsar in the Northern Sector. The aircraft was flying at a height of 37,000 feet and entered Indian airspace on an established border entry point on ATS route.

The aircraft was not in communication and also the secondary radar response code (Identification Friendly or Foe) i.e. Squawk code of the aircraft, was not correct so it was identified as 'unknown'.

Immediately, an IAF MiG-29 fighter jet was scrambled to intercept and investigate the identity of the 'unknown' aircraft.

It was only later that the aircraft started transmitting correct secondary radar response code and was picked up and identified by AD radar as civil airliner (A-343) of Air France (AFR-164). The flight was from Paris to Bangkok.

The MiG-29 fighter aircraft was given instructions to break off and return to base. A formal report of the incident has been forwarded to AAI.

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