A London-bound Cathay Pacific Airways flight failed to establish contact over Romanian airspace at one stage on Saturday, prompting Hungarian fighter jets to respond to a Nato alert and intercept the flight.
Cathay Pacific said on Wednesday that the incident was under investigation. It added that the safety of the aircraft or people on board was not compromised at any point.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation activated a “quick reaction alert” after the Airbus A350-1000 temporarily failed to establish contact with Romanian civil air traffic control while travelling from Hong Kong to London Heathrow Airport.
Hungarian defence minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi wrote on social media on Saturday that the alert was ordered at 1.42pm (Central European Time) on the same day.
“An alert was ordered for a Nato quick reaction alert (interceptor) standby pair of aircraft, because a Chinese-registered A350 type aircraft travelling on the Hong Kong – London route, while located in Romanian airspace, failed to establish contact with Romanian civilian air traffic control,” he wrote.
“The Hungarian readiness aircraft took off at 1.51pm and visually warned the Chinese-registered aircraft near the Hungarian border, after which it established contact with air traffic control.