Italian fighter jets were scrambled after a hijack alert sparked by a mix-up between a German pilot and air traffic controllers, say officials.
Italian civil aviation authority Enac said a “radio communication error” sparked the alert.
When the plane finally landed at Rome’s Ciampino airport, passengers were kept on board for two hours while armed police carried out a detailed search.
The Air Berlin plane, on a flight from Nuremberg, had 124 people on board.
“There was a radio communication error and a state of alert was called as a precautionary measure,” Enac said.
The airport was closed for 40 minutes.
Officials were quoted as saying that the pilot had apparently accidentally set off a cockpit hijack alarm as the plane flew through Italian airspace.
But the airline denied that errors had been made.
There were neither technical nor human problems on board,” airline spokesman Peter Hauptvogel said.
He said the pilot had been ordered into a holding pattern, and had asked why he couldn’t land. At that point, Mr Hauptvogel said, the plane was escorted into the airport by fighter aircraft.
High security
Security forces boarded the Boeing 737 after it landed, and was ordered to taxi to a “secure zone” in a remote section of the airport.
The incident came amid heightened security in Rome as the state funerals of 19 Italians killed in Iraq were being held.
A police inquiry into the hijacking alert is under way.
Two F-104 planes were scrambled to intercept the German plane.
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November 20, 2003 at 3:46 pm