UTair Boeing 767-300 (VQ-BSX) from Moscow and Aerolíneas Argentinas Airbus A340-300 (LV-FPV) were involved into a rather rare but dangerous incident at Barcelona airport.
Here’s an interesting video.
It shows an unauthorized runway incursion at Barcelona airport, in Spain.
According to the user who filmed the incident, Flight UT5187, a UTair Boeing 767-300 (VQ-BSX) from Moscow was on final for runway 02 when Aerolíneas Argentinas Airbus A340-300 (LV-FPV) crossed the runway to taxi to the holding point of runway 25R.
As soon as the Russian pilots saw the Airbus 340 crossing the runway, they performed a successful go around.
After the incident, the Boeing 767 landed safely on runway 02, as the footage shows.
Even if the aircraft did not come too close each other, such an incident could have had a much different outcome in case of bad weather and scarce visibility.
Needless to say, in both military and civil aviation, failure to comply with the “hold short” instruction by the Tower can be extremely dangerous, to say the least.
Italian Eurofighter Typhoons escorted the hijacked plane and handed over to the French Air Force because the Swiss Air Force was outside working hours.
On Feb. 17, an Ethiopian Boeing 767 from Addis Abeba to Rome Fiumicino was hijacked by the copilot while the pilot was in the toilet, and eventually landed at Geneva airport.
The aircraft, flying as ET 702 was escorted on its route by two Eurofighter Typhoons of the 36° Stormo on QRA (Quick Reaction Alert).
The two F-2000s (this is the designation of the Typhoon within the Italian Air Force) were scrambled from Gioia del Colle, in Southeastern Italy, where 36° Stormo’s 12° and 10° Gruppo (Squadron) are based. Once in the air within the standard 15-minute timeframe, the two armed fighter jets headed westbound, vectored by the Air Defense Radar to intercept the hijacked plane.
The two Typhoons reached the Boeing 767 off Sicily, identified and shadowed it along its way across the Italian airspace.
When the Ethiopian flight reached the boundaries of the French airspace it was handed over to the French Air Force. whose Mirage fighter jets escorted it until landing in Geneva: noteworthy, the hijacked liner was accompanied until landing by the French jets because instead of Swiss interceptors because the entire interception took place early in the morning, outside the working hours (08.00 – 12 and 13.30 – 17.00) of the Swiss F-18 Hornets!
If you plan to attack Switzerland, opt for non-working hours.
On Jul. 31, two F-15s were scrambled from Barnes Air National Guard Base, when United Airlines Flight 956, a Boeing 767 with registration N654UA and 157 passengers on board, flying from Newark to Geneva, informed Boston Air Route Control Center that they had found a “suspicious package” on board and needed to divert to Boston Logan aiport.
Slam 31 and 32 (these were the radio callsigns of the fighter jets) were scrambled at approximately 00.39Z but shortly after take-off Slam 31 suffered an avionics system failure, resulting in him having to return to base and declare an In-Flight Emergency.
Since Slam 31 could not autonomously fly through the bad weather as it lacked any navigational assistance from the onboard systems, Slam 32 escorted the leader back to the base.
Although the two F-15s failed to intercept the jet liner, the Boeing 767 landed safely at Boston Logan airport at about 21.15 local time when it became clear that the “bomb scare” that had compelled the plane to return to the U.S. when it was just off the coast of Nova Scotia, was a digital camera stuffed in a seat back pocket whose owner could not be found.
Aaron Perry digged out of LiveATC archives the radio communications between Barnes ANGB Tower and SLAM 32 getting clearances for the scramble.
SLAM 32: “Westfield Tower, SLAM 32, active air alert, scramble. Taxi and take-off, Runway 20. Singles then one to follow.
“Westfield Tower: “SLAM 31/32 roger, cleared to the TOI 085 at 232 miles, cleared for take-off, Runway 20, change departure frequencies, left turn 090, climb and maintain niner thousand.”
SLAM32: “SLAM 32, nine thousand, 090, cleared for take-off.”
I recently visited Rivolto airbase, in NE Italy, during the rehearsals (Sept. 10) and the airshow (Sept. 11 and 12) that was held at the Frecce Tricolori homebase to celebrate the 50th Anniversary (actually the 50th airshow season) of the Pattuglia Acrobatica Nazionale (Italian Aerobatic Team). The airshow, that represented the 10° Raduno Piloti Pattuglie Acrobatiche (Aerobatic Team Pilot Reunion), was attended by about 450.000 people and by 600 media representatives. The flying programme saw the display of some of the most important aerobatic teams: the Red Arrows, the Patrouille de France, the Patrulla Aguila, the Patrouille Suisse and the Jordanian Falcons. The airshow was attended also for the first time by the Croatian Krila Oluje Team and by the Polish Team Iskry. Some solos displayed too: along with the MB.339CD, the Tornado, the C-27J, the AMX and the F-2000 of the Reparto Sperimentale Volo, also the Alenia Aermacchi M.346 “Master” that will be delivered to the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF) during the next year. Interestingly, the F-2000 had the 4° Stormo badge on the right hand side of the tail and the RSV one on the other one.
The flying display was broadcasted live on the Internet and on TV by the RAI (Italian State TV). After being inteview Live from Rainews24:
I had the honour to be invited to talk about the official ItAF book for the 50th Anniversary of the Frecce (read here: http://cencio4.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/frecce-tricolori/) during the Azzurro Tricolore live television show broadcasted by Rai Uno (Channel 1):
On the same subject I was also interviewed by Carlo Gallucci for the TG5:
Here are some interesting pictures I took during the three days spent in Rivolto.
On Jun. 5, 2009, I took the following picture of an interesting civilian B767, with registration N767A that was parked in the VIP apron of the 31° Stormo of the Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force, ItAF). According to the information gathered on the Internet, the aircraft is owned by the Saudi Aramco Aviation the “airline” of Saudi Aramco, an international petroleum company with the world’s largest oil reserves.
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