By: keltic - 11th October 2001 at 19:35
RE: Is this true?
With the TCAS I don´t think the incident were serious. They probably were flying into colission route, but I don´t think they came too close each other. The divertion manouvers are performed quite a long time before its a real danger.
By: Bhoy - 10th October 2001 at 23:43
RE: Is this true?
yes, apparently it is. I got this from yahoo news:
Wednesday October 10, 10:53 am Eastern Time
Fighter jets buzzed Lufthansa plane near Pakistan
FRANKFURT, Oct 10 (Reuters) – Two British or U.S. fighter jets buzzed a plane operated by German national airline Lufthansa in airspace south of Pakistan on Sunday, forcing the Boeing 747 carrying 308 passengers to climb sharply.
A Lufthansa spokesman said on Wednesday that the jets had flown up to check the identity of the plane after spotting it on radar screens on a normal route in international airspace as U.S.-led attacks on targets in Afghanistan began.
“They saw our plane on the radar, had contact with us but nevertheless to be sure they flew up to knock on (the window), as it were, to verify what we had told them via radio,” Lufthansa (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: LHAG.F) spokesman Thomas Jachnow said.
The fighter jets’ close proximity triggered an automatic warning system that advised the pilot to pull up.
“He climbed a few hundred metres (yards) in order to avoid a possible collision,” Jachnow said. “That’s his training.”
The jets had made radio contact with the aircraft — which was on a scheduled flight from Bangkok to Frankfurt — to check its identity, but did not warn of their approach, which they were not required to do, he said.
Jachnow said such checks had become routine since the September 11 attacks on the United States, in which hijackers crashed planes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
The warning system activates when another aircraft is within 60 kilometres (37 miles), he said. The plane was flying at a normal altitude of 10,000 meters (yards).
The Lufthansa flight went on to land safely in Frankfurt. Passengers were in no danger at any time, Jachnow said.
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October 10, 2001 at 5:14 pm