London-bound Air India aircraft escorted by fighter jets after it loses contact with Air Traffic Control

A London-bound Air India aircraft from Ahmedabad on Friday had to be escorted by fighter jets after it lost contact with the Air Traffic Control while flying over Hungary.

The Dreamliner Boieng 787-800 plane with 231 passengers and 18 crew members onboard lost contact with the ATC due to “frequency fluctuation”, an Air India spokesperson said.

“AI flight 171 from Ahmedabad for Newark airport in the US via London lost communication with local ATC  while flying over Humgary for a short while,” the spokesperson said.

The aircraft, which took off from the Sardar Vallabhbhai International Airport at Ahmedabad at 0700 hours, landed safely at London’s Heathrow Airport at 11.05 hours local time, the spokesperson said.

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Air India has already started a probe into the incident, he added.

This is the second such reported incident of an Indian aircraft losing contact with the ATC in the European airspace in a month’s time.

On February 16, Jet Airways flight Jet Airways flight 9W-118 from Mumbai had lost communication with the Germany’s ATC on its way to Heathrow airport in London, forcing the German Air Force to scramble two fighter jets after it.

Video | Jet Airways aircraft loses contact with Air Traffic Control, German fighters escort it to London