Unprecedented! 13 Aircraft Vanish From Radar In Heart of Europe!
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Subject: Unprecedented! 13 Aircraft Vanish From Radar In Heart of Europe! Thu Jun 12, 2014 10:01 pm
Unprecedented! 13 Aircraft Vanish From Radar In Heart of Europe!
‘Unprecedented’: 13 aircraft mysteriously disappear from radars in heart of Europe
Published time: June 12, 2014 21:13 Get short URL
Reuters / Toby Melville
Tags EU, Europe, Planes
A total of 13 aircraft suddenly vanished off radars for about 25 minutes on two occasions over Austria and neighboring countries, Austria's flight safety monitor said, calling for an EU probe into the “unprecedented” incidents.
The flights vanished from air traffic controllers’ screens in Austria on June 5 and June 10 for 25 minutes each time, Marcus Pohanka of Austro Control – Austria’s flight safety organization – said Thursday.
Air traffic control in neighboring regions of Germany and the Czech Republic also reported similar problems.
Pohanka said the location, height, and identity of the 13 aircraft vanished over Austria both times, in what he called “unprecedented” incidents, AP reported.
He added that some neighboring countries had experienced similar problems. The daily Kurier, based in Vienna, elaborated that similar problems were experienced by flight controllers in Munich and Karlsruhe in Germany and in Prague, Czech Republic.
Poahanka declined to say which airlines and planes were involved, but suggested that some may have been passenger jets, which fly at high altitudes. The EU’s Eurocontrol and European Aviation Safety Agency will investigate the incidents.
Poahanka stressed that at no time were any of the planes in danger, as extra air traffic controllers were immediately called to their posts and emergency measures were brought in, which included immediately establishing voice contact with the pilots and the widening of flight corridors.
The Kurier cited an unnamed expert as saying that the problem was most likely to do with interference between the aircraft transponders and the ground.
Subject: Who caused planes to vanish on radars over Europe? Not NATO, the alliance says Mon Jun 16, 2014 8:12 am
Who caused planes to vanish on radars over Europe? Not NATO, the alliance says
DateJune 16, 2014 - 10:31AM
Planes went missing on radars in Europe this month. Pictured: an air traffic control tower. Photo: Craig Abraham
London: NATO said on Sunday it was not to blame for recent incidents in which dozens of aircraft briefly vanished from air traffic control radar screens in Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Slovak state Air Traffic Services company said on Friday that the brief disappearance of planes from radar screens on June 5 and 10 was connected to a military exercise whose goal was "the interruption of radio communication frequencies."
It did not identify the military force organising the exercise, but Austrian media said it was NATO.
The military alliance, in response to a request for comment, said it did carry out some training that involved "localised and low-power jamming" in the skies over Hungary during the June 2-6 period and that it was currently conducting similar training in southern Italy from June 9-20.
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However, it said no jamming was conducted on June 5.
"Our assessment is that NATO did not cause any interference with civilian air traffic control frequencies. When NATO conducts such exercises, we co-ordinate our activities with relevant civilian authorities and only use frequencies provided to us by the host nation," a NATO military officer said.
NATO AWACS surveillance aircraft that have been flying regular missions over Europe to monitor Russian activities near Ukraine could not have caused the interference because they did not have a jamming capability, the officer said. The European air navigation safety organisation EUROCONTROL and the European Air Safety Agency are investigating the incidents.
"We will co-operate with these authorities in order to be absolutely sure that there is no connection between our exercises and the frequency interference issues that have been reported," the NATO officer said.
Subject: Unprecedented! 13 Aircraft Vanish From Radar In Heart of Europe! 
Thu Jun 12, 2014 10:01 pm
