Israeli jets intercept 'silent' German airliner

Israeli air force fighters intercepted a German airliner approaching Tel Aviv when it failed to respond to calls from ground controllers.

The Lufthansa Airbus from Frankfurt, with 181 passengers aboard, was over the Mediterranean and approaching Israel yesterday, said Pini Schiff, spokesman of the Israel Airports Authority.

He denied Israeli media reports that it was feared the plane had been hijacked and was about to crash into a Tel Aviv skyscraper.

The pilot failed to respond to a call from flight controllers at Israel’s Ben-Gurion International Airport, but it emerged later that this was because his radio was on the Cypriot frequency, so he did not hear the call, Schiff said.

Two F-16 fighters were sent to intercept the plane, but as they approached it on either side, the pilot switched to the Israeli frequency and made contact with the airport. Shortly afterward he landed safely.

Schiff refused to say whether the F-16 pilots would have shot the plane down if the pilot had not broken his silence and spoken to the control tower.

In February 1973, Israeli warplanes shot down a Libyan airliner that had strayed into the Israeli-occupied Sinai peninsula from Egypt, at a time when Egypt and Libya were in a state of war with Israel. More than 100 passengers and crew were killed.