http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3719876.stm

Cyprus protests at Israel air bar

Cyprus has lodged a strong protest with Israel over Tuesday’s violation of its air regulations by Israeli jets which forced a plane to land in Larnaca.

The two jets escorted a German Lufthansa airliner bound for Tel Aviv after a bomb hoax that German authorities deemed not to be serious.

It has emerged the jets first buzzed a Swiss plane close to Cyprus, forcing it to switch altitude, reports say.

The hoax is the latest in a series of such scares in the last two weeks.

Israel’s new ambassador in Cyprus, Zvi Cohen-Litant, was summoned to the foreign ministry, Greek Cypriot news agency CNA reports.

Cyprus also said this latest violation followed a series of repeated violations by Israeli fighters, something that could put human lives at risk, CNA said.

Cyprus is also expected to report the incident to international air traffic control bodies, officials said.

Communications Minister Haris Thrassou said that before the Lufthansa jet was approached, a Swiss plane had to change altitude because of the presence of the jets.

“It appears they then realised their mistake and moved on to the Lufthansa plane,” he said.

Hoax

A telephone call to the German airline warning of a bomb on board the aircraft was received shortly after Flight LH686 left Frankfurt on Tuesday morning.

The German authorities later concluded that the threat was a false alarm and authorised the plane to continue its journey to Tel Aviv.

But Israel instructed the plane to land in Cyprus as a precaution and sent two F-16 fighter jets to escort it.

The plane was searched in Larnaca for about five hours before taking off again and landing in Tel Aviv that evening.

There were 331 passengers and 16 crew on board the Boeing 747-400 jet.

Now this is downright belligerent.

Perhaps next time this happens near Cyprus (God forbid), they should send the plane/ship to spread the love over to Israel.
😡

people who do not have any valid argument or are just
drunk boors by nature tend to pick on acronyms, grammar,
minor errors if they cant whine about anything else.

People who have such forceful and polarized opinions should take care to get those minor ‘niggles’ like acronyms and “minor errors” (like who operates what type of a/c) correct before they voice them.

Either upgrade all EGs to Mk-2 standards and equally distribute them into two squadrons or do not upgrade additional 5 Eg’s and let them fly in the current congfiguration

Thanks for your concern and advice. It will be taken with the greatest regard to the desk of the proper authorities.

The sacking of the Air Force Chief has nothing to do with the accident per se, but with how the chain of events happend after the Chinook went down with regards to the radar operators at several stations, especially one Air Force operator at a site near the crash.

But what on Earth does Israel need a carrier for? It has no strategic interest in blue-water sealanes, it has no maritime rivals except maybe for some Cypriotic anchovies-fishermen, and it doesn’t even have free access to the sea from it’s own shores. Not in the Med (Egypt to the left, Syria/Lebanon to the right, and Cyprus as a convenient cork in the bittle) and not on the Red Sea either. If they’d embark that boat in Eilat, both Egyptian, Jordanese and Saudi schoolkids could amuse themselves by flying paper aeroplanes into it.

I swear to God Arthur… 😀 😀

One of the largest? The US, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Greece and the Netherlands have more fighters than Canada…

Canada does very well considering the military is not 1/10 the priority it is in any one of those countries you mentioned.

Canada the worst. Funny. :confused:

Canada will be the first nation to have the AIM-120C in its inventory.

Not true. I believe the EPA has begun taking deliveries of the 120C5.

In general every country does what it can.

Originally posted by ichi
definately the best camo on any Ah-64 model 🙂

You got that right.