Vigilance Reminder FWIW: Today is 8/11
Spain: Our Plane Led to May Terror Scare
Wednesday August 11, 2004 2:46 PM
MADRID, Spain (AP) - Fighter planes from three European countries intercepted and tailed a Spanish airliner in a terror scare in May after the civilian aircraft's pilots failed to answer messages from air traffic controllers, the Spanish airline said Wednesday.
The Air Europa Boeing 737 carrying 186 people was flying from Bergen, Norway to Spain's Mediterranean island of Mallorca on May 1, the same day the European Union expanded from 15 to 25 member states. The plane's failure to communicate with controllers had prompted fears of a Sept. 11-style suicide hijacking.
An official with Air Europa confirmed Wednesday a report in the newspaper El Pais that two military jets each from Germany, the Netherlands and France intercepted and flew alongside the plane during different stages of its flight south from Norway to Spain.
In the end, the French military pilots managed to contact the Spanish aircraft and confirm that nothing aboard was awry.
The pilot and co-pilot of the civilian aircraft heard messages from air traffic controllers asking that a plane identify itself but did not realize it was their plane being queried, said the company official, who asked not to be identified. She declined to go into detail.
The Air Europa pilot and co-pilot later told Dutch investigators they did not realize the plane was being escorted until they saw the fighter jets through the cockpit window, El Pais said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4410536,00.html