NEW DELHI: Jet Airways that reportedly had a communication failure on board while flying in the German airspace forced German authorities to scramble fighter jets fearing a hijack.
The incident occurred on February 16 when the Mumbai- London flight 9W-118, with 330 passengers and 15 crew members lost contact with the air traffic control for a "brief period" while flying over Cologne, Germany.
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Jet Airways in a statement here on Sunday said that the pilots of its Boeing-777 lost contact due to a reported communication failure. However, the communication was safely restored within minutes and the flight landed at its destination without any hitch, the airlines said in a statement.
The airline has de-rostered the pilots of the flight pending investigation and reported the matter to India’s civil aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
"Contact between Jet Airways flight 9W-118 from Mumbai to London Heathrow, of February 16, 2017, and the local ATC, was briefly lost while flying over German airspace," the airline statement said.
In a reply to a query about the incident, this is what Jet Airways put out on Twitter:
"As a precaution, the German Air Force (GAF) scrambled its fighter jets to ensure the safety of the flight and its passengers," it said.
The communication was, however, safely restored within a few minutes, according to the airlines.