Gripen scrambled due to London-Doha plane failing to establish contact

Budapest, March 21 (MTI) – The Hungarian armed forces scrambled a Gripen fighter jet on Tuesday morning to identify a plane flying from London to Doha which had failed to establish contact with ground control, the ministry of defence said in a statement.

The DC-10 plan entered Hungarian airspace just after 10am and did not keep to its planned flight path. Neither did it contact the civilian air traffic control. The Gripen was scrambled after NATO’s integrated air management center called an alert. The Gripen identified and accompanied the aircraft which then established radio contact with the Hungarian civilian air navigation service at 10.26am before continuing on to its destination of Doha.

Photo: honvedelem.hu

Source: MTI/honvedelem.hu