On Wednesday, two Eurofighters had to take off because there was no radio contact to be made to a plane from Spain via East Tyrol. After an alarm start, the army pilots were able to reach the machine in the airspace of Lienz.
As it soon turned out, there were no problems with the plane. In the cockpit the only thing that had been forgotten was the radio. As soon as the Spanish pilot spotted the interceptors, he reported immediately.
The machine was on its way from Zaragoza to Brno. And like any aircraft, she should have been in constant contact with Austrocontrol. If this fails, the interceptors come into play.
Defense Ministry spokesman, Colonel Michael Bauer: “There are between 30 and 50 such missions per year. Our interceptors mount up to clarify whether the pilot had just forgotten about the radio, got sick or maybe even a kidnapping is in progress. “
It goes very quickly until the Eurofighters are on the machine in question. Bauer: “Sometimes there are some in the air because there is training. In this case there was an alarm start by a gang. ”In most cases, the pilots do not have to draw special attention to themselves:“ As soon as the pilots see our machines, they use the radio. ”