RSS Feed
April 24th, 2016 
Awake Goy 
nsnbc : Israeli jets scrambled Saturday to intercept an “unidentified jet” that turned out to be an Air Sinai passenger jet on flight ASD214 from Cairo to Tel Aviv. The plane was escorted to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. Cypriot air traffic controllers reportedly failed to pass information about the flight on to Israeli air traffic controllers.
An Israeli military spokesperson commented on the incident earlier merely mentioning that “earlier this morning, two Israeli Air Force aircraft accompanied a foreign aircraft planning to land at ben Gurion Airport which did not identify itself when entering Israeli airspace. … The aircraft landed safely at Ben Gurion as planned”.
Air Sinai has not yet commented on whether or not the crew failed to identify the plane prior to entering Israeli airspace. Egypt’s Ministry of Aviation also commented on the intercept of the Egyptian Air Sinai jeg on Flight ASD214.
The Aviation Ministry said that the Israeli Air Force intercepted the jet because Cypriot air traffic controllers had delayed the sending of data about the flight to Israeli air traffic controllers.
An expert on civilian aviation who is consulting for nsnbc noted that the intercept could show: that air traffic controllers in the region are working in a very stressful environment; in a region with a lot of traffic to and from numerous regional countries; that delays can happen; and that the Israeli intercept of the jet is normal and just shows that Israel’s air force operates as it is supposed to when a plane that has not been identified or is unresponsive enters Israeli air space.
The incident has, however, led to speculations and reports that link the incident to Egyptian – Cypriot and Egyptian – Israeli relations.
Air Sinai Flight ASD214 reportedly carried a number of Egyptian Coptic Christian passengers. There have been mild diplomatic tensions between Israel and Egypt after Israeli authorities, recently, refused to issue visa to Coptic Christian Egyptians who wanted to visit Jerusalem to celebrate Easter Holidays in the Holy City.
Others would speculate that the Israeli Air Force would be particularly watchful after the crash of the Russian Kogalmavia / Metrojet passenger plane on Flight KGL9268 in October 2015.
nsnbc’s civil aviation consultant noted, however, that the Israeli Air Force, due to the fact that Israel is a very small country, is geared for and ready to respond swiftly at any time and that it is unlikely that the two incidents are related.
Others again noted that an EgyptAir passenger jet recently was hijacked by an apparently emotionally or mentally disturbed man who claimed to have an explosive belt on him. The plane was forced to land on Cyprus. It turned out that the man had no explosives of any kind on him and that the aircrew made the right decision by landing the plane as soon as possible because security forces cannot intervene as long as the plane is airborne.
“The incident may, however, have prompted the Israeli Air Force to respond extra swiftly provided that they were aware of that the plane was Egyptian anyway. The passenger jet should have been easy to identify by its transponder, but it may have failed to contact or respond to Israeli ATC” , said nsnbc’s civil aviation consultant. AirSinai is a regional low-cost subsidiary of EgptAir with its headquarters based in Cairo.
F/AK – nsnbc 23.04.2016
Source Article from http://nsnbc.me/2016/04/23/israeli-jets-intercept-air-sinai-passenger-jet/
Posted in 
Tags: 
