Overview
- An Arkia passenger aircraft en route from Tel Aviv to Prague temporarily lost radio contact while crossing Hungarian airspace, prompting a military response.
- NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre and Hungarian authorities scrambled two JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets to intercept and visually identify the Airbus.
- The fighters made visual contact with the Arkia crew, communications were restored, and the civilian aircraft was escorted out of Hungarian airspace and continued to its destination without incident.
- Arkia and Hungarian officials have opened internal reviews to determine the exact cause, with initial, unconfirmed assessments pointing to a temporary 'frequency fluctuation' in radio communications.
- Hungarian leaders said standard air-policing procedures worked as designed, and the event underscores how military-civil coordination is used to protect civilian flights when contact is lost.