Air India plane goes off radar over Hungary, fighter jets escort it to Heathrow
The Ahmedabad-London flight was carrying 249 people.
An Air India plane carrying 249 people briefly went off the radar over Hungarian airspace, the airline said on Friday. Fighter jets were deployed to locate it soon after Air Traffic Control lost contact with the Ahmedabad-London flight, NDTV reported. The jets then escorted the aircraft to Heathrow airport.
An Air India official said the flight, AI 171, had gone off the radar because of a “frequency fluctuation”, but that all passengers and members of the crew were safe.
This comes just weeks after a Jet Airways flight had gone incommunicado and had to be escorted to Heathrow by German fighter jets. However, in that case, the pilot was said to have chosen the wrong frequency for communication.