BRATISLAVA, October 25, (WEBNOVINY) — The Slovak Ministry of Defense rejects speculations that two Armed Forces MiG-29 fighter jets were a threat to another airliner in the area when they were approaching a not responding civilian air plane this Saturday. “No safety regulations were violated, the flight was absolutely in accordance with the legal rules,” informed Defense Minister Lubomir Galko at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. Galko denied information that one of the jets endangered a passing Boeing 747 airliner during its climb to the designated flight altitude. According to Lubomir Svoboda of the Armed Forces General Staff, standard altitude difference between two airplanes is 600 meters, yet it might be reduced in certain situations. He also added that the real distance between the MiG-29 and the airliner was nine kilometers and the flight altitude difference of 300 meters, was determined by civilian air traffic control.
Two Slovak air force MiG-29 jets, participating in the NATO Integrated Air Defense System (NATINADS) were scrambled to check a potential air space violation by a civilian airliner last Saturday. The deployment was triggered by a situation when Czech civilian flight control had no contact with the plane flying from Czech Republic in the direction to Slovakia. Finally, the plane’s crew made visual contact with Slovak fighters and the plane was escorted to Slovak border with Hungary, informed Slovak Armed Forces spokesman Peter Michnica.
According to Slovak Armed Forces, loss of contact is the most frequent reason for deployment of Sliac Air Base-based MiG-29 jets. This was also the case on Saturday: pilots were ordered to assist a civilian plane which was unable of making radio contact with air traffic control. MiG pilots then made visual contact with the airliner pilots and informed using sign language that the passengers’ safety was not under threat. The Airbus’ radio station had malfunctioned.
Although the Armed Forces did not disclose further details on the incident, according to information SITA acquired the plane should have been an Airbus A330. Website of the SME daily informed that the plane was probably a Qatar Airways flight from London bound to Qatar’s capital Doha. The airplane managed to re-establish its radio connection over Hungarian airspace.
SITA