Unidentified plane from Hungary intercepted in Romania by the USA

An unidentified small plane from Hungary passed over the western part of Romania’s airspace on Wednesday evening, and two US Air Force fighter jets were alerted to intercept it.

Aircraft without permission

The low-flying, Beechcraft twin-engine aircraft took off without permission in the Debrecen area at 5.30 PM Eastern European time. Eight minutes later, it was intercepted by Hungarian Gripen aircrafts, but the small aircraft did not respond to radio calls or visual signals, according to 24.hu.

The unidentified aircraft, flying with its transponder switched off, entered Romanian airspace at 5.49 PM in the Nagyvárad (Oradea) region. At 5.58 PM, it was followed by two F-16 fighters of the US Air Force on patrol in the Romanian airspace.

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No hostile behaviour

According to the Romanian Ministry of Defence (MAPN), the small aircraft did not display any dangerous or hostile behaviour, but continued to fail to respond to the internationally used radio and visual signals of the fighter aircraft sent to intercept it, as 24.hu writes.

The plane continued its flight to Karánsebes-Szörényvár, crossed Serbian airspace for two minutes at around 7:00 PM, and then flew over to Bulgaria. In the meantime, the two American fighters returned to the Fetești airbase, while two Bulgarian F-16s took over the pursuit of the target.

Investigation

According to MAPN, Bulgarian authorities began a ground investigation on Wednesday evening in the area where the unidentified aircraft was last detected by radar.

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The Romanian Ministry of Defence has no precise information on what happened to the small plane after it entered Bulgarian airspace, as it disappeared from military radar screens (which could indicate that it either landed or crashed in Bulgaria). Bulgarian authorities are currently investigating the area around the last known position of the target to identify the aircraft and establish the details, as Telex.hu reported.

What does interception mean?

Senior pilot Csaba Ugrik earlier spoke to Index about what the term interception means in this context:

“The idea is to approach with safety in mind, keeping your distance and signalling to the intercepted aircraft that you have ‘got them’. Then visual identification is done, reading the number on the vertical control plane, determining the colour, identifying the aircraft type, and we also try to take photos of the intercepted aircraft. When we are done with the VID, the collected data is passed on to the headquarters, where we get a response telling us whether to follow the aircraft or everything is OK, their flight is safe, we can return home.”