Would a fighter jet ever shoot down a passenger plane?
It’s not unheard of for fighter jets to intercept civilian aircraft as a security precaution - Anton Petrus/Moment RF
In the long list of things you don’t want to happen to a civilian flight, needing to be intercepted by fighter jets has to be near the top of the pile. Yet that’s exactly what happened earlier this month to a Wizz Air flight, which ended up being escorted into Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv by two Israeli military planes.
The dramatic scenario was said to have come about after a passenger spotted a Wi-Fi hotspot network name had been assigned the Arabic word for “terrorist” and alerted the crew with concerns of a security threat on board.
The jet circled the sky close to Cyprus as security services assessed the situation, before it was guided to Ben Gurion, where it landed safely and passengers had their belongings searched. No threat was found, with some reports suggesting the culprit may have been a child who had renamed the hotspot network on his parents’ phone.
A Wizz Air plane in Tel Aviv in 2019. This month, two Israeli fighter jets guided one of the airline’s flights into Ben Gurion Airport - Boarding1Now/iStock Editorial
Let’s start with the obvious point: Any kind of joke about bombs or similar security threats on an aircraft is never going to be received well. Throw in the delicate security situation in Israel and you can see why the incident was treated seriously. This sort of behaviour might have seen the culprit prosecuted back in Britain, given that the flight set off from Luton airport, and under our law, that could mean a five-year prison sentence – as well as the risk of a costly civil claim from Wizz Air.
Why involve a fighter jet?
And what about the involvement of those Israeli fighter jets? While the dispatching of military jets isn’t an everyday occurrence, it isn’t entirely unknown either. “There are likely far more incidents every year than those that end up reported,” says Isobel Kerr, an analyst with aviation security specialists Osprey Flight Solutions. Mainly because most incidents don’t involve crimes like bomb threats.
In general, there are two categories of fighter jet incidents. The first involves passenger planes requesting assistance – usually because the captain is concerned about a situation on board. “A plane’s captain can request assistance from ground authorities under the terms of the air navigation laws,” says Julian Bray, an independent aviation analyst. It’s then up to those authorities to respond as they see fit.
We’ve seen these kinds of situations closer to home as well, including with the dispatching of fighter jets. Back in 2014, a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Manchester was escorted by an RAF Typhoon upon entering British space. The captain had issued an emergency alert after one of the passengers passed on a note – via the crew – suggesting that there could be a hidden explosive device on board.
Emergency vehicles responded over security concerns aboard a Qatar Airways flight in Manchester in 2014 - Andrew Yates/Reuters
The second reason fighter jets might be deployed is if an alert is raised by authorities on the ground, usually based on the behaviour or identity of the plane. “The most common reason why that might happen is a loss of communication between the aircraft and air traffic control,” says Kerr. In that case, ATC will alert the relevant authorities who can assess whether the plane is a threat.
In the vast majority of cases, that won’t be the case. Planes can easily lose contact with ATC for various reasons – such as pilots using the wrong frequency, or the technology playing up. Often communication will be established and the fighter jets can return to base. But it could also indicate that the plane has been hijacked – meaning authorities can’t afford to ignore the situation.
‘Headbutts’ at 35,000ft
What can the fighter jets do in that situation? For a start, they can attempt to communicate with the errant plane using air-to-air frequencies. If necessary, they can also try to see what’s happening in the cockpit. Are there any signs that the wrong person is piloting the plane, or that the captain appears to be distressed, for example.
“A fighter jet may also try to get a civilian jet to fly in the route required by authorities,” says Bray. This tends to happen when a plane has inadvertently drifted into a no-fly zone, perhaps in an attempt to dodge bad weather, and thus needs to be steered back on course by military jets.
Those kinds of deft moves are bread and butter to a trained combat pilot. Last year, a US fighter pilot used a manoeuvre called a “headbutt” – which isn’t quite as violent as it sounds – to get a civilian plane to change course after it entered a temporary no-fly zone imposed over Donald Trump’s Florida estate. The tactic involves the fighter jet flying directly into the pilot’s eyeline to get them to change direction.
The last resort
And what about the ultimate question: Would a fighter jet ever shoot down a civilian plane? While the situation hasn’t come to pass – thankfully – in recent decades, there are plenty of on-record confirmations from various governments that the option remains firmly on the table.
Back in 2009, a Canadian hobbyist pilot entered US airspace without warning, failing to engage with air traffic control. While the plane did eventually land in Missouri, a senior federal aviation official later told the news networks that it was the closest he’d seen a plane come to being shot down, with the pilot repeatedly ignoring attempts from authorities to communicate.
It isn’t just the Americans either. Speaking with the BBC journalist Jon Sopel in 2011, Tony Blair revealed that he had come close to giving the order to shoot down an unresponsive plane that had deviated from its flight path. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Sir Tony didn’t give the full details of the incident – but he did suggest that it occurred not long after 9/11, when Western governments were on heightened alert.
Fighter jets are more commonly seen escorting military aircraft such as this KC-330 tanker - Chris Jung/NurPhoto
Of course, all of that just adds more weight to the question as to why someone would consider using the word “terrorist” on a flight to one of the most security-conscious nations on earth – let alone to publicly broadcast it to fellow passengers. But believe it or not, it isn’t even the first time that such a move has led to this kind of situation.
Only two years ago, a young British man, Aditya Verma, found himself in a Madrid court after his joke about blowing up a plane – something he’d sent to his friends in a closed chat – led an easyJet flight to be intercepted by Spanish fighter jets on its way into Menorca. He was charged with endangering a civilian flight but was later acquitted on the basis that his comments were a private joke.
Whatever you think of that ruling, that’s not an excuse that would be available to the apparent Wizz Air prankster.
Play The Telegraph’s brilliant range of Puzzles - and feel brighter every day. Train your brain and boost your mood with PlusWord, the Mini Crossword, the fearsome Killer Sudoku and even the classic Cryptic Crossword.
