Thursday Apr 12 10:40 AEST

 

Israeli warplanes nearly shot down an American airliner carrying passengers from New York to Tel Aviv overnight when the pilot failed to respond as the plane approached the Israeli coast, an airport authority official said.

 

Two Israeli F-15s and two F-16s fighter planes were scrambled to intercept a Boeing 777 operated by the US Continental Airlines as it prepared to enter Israeli airspace without responding to control tower demands to identify itself, the official added.

 

According to Israel's private Channel-10, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Amir Peretz and General Gaby Ashkenazy, chief of staff, were warned that the air force was on the point of shooting down a civilian plane suspected of being in the hands of hijackers.

 

The Boeing pilot at the last minute realised the situation and the danger threatening his craft and established contact while still over the Mediterranean.

 

Escorted by the warplanes, the Boeing landed without further problems at Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion airport where an inquiry was opened.

 

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=260661

 

....

 

talk about a lucky call. what if he had been too late to identify themselves. the thought could quite easily have happened, quite unnerving really.

wow. that was a close call.

Yeah, I nearly posted this yesterday.

 

Here's another report from the A.P....

 

Israeli jets intercept U.S. commercial flight

 

Continental Boeing 777 was on scheduled flight from Newark

 

Reuters

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

 

JERUSALEM - Israel scrambled fighter jets to intercept and then escort an American commercial passenger plane to landing on Wednesday, Israeli officials said.

 

An Airports Authority spokeswoman said Continental Airlines' Flight 90 was intercepted after it failed to identify itself upon entering Israeli airspace.

 

The plane, a Boeing 777, was on a scheduled flight from Newark, N.J. All passengers and crew disembarked safely, Israeli officials said.

 

The Transportation Ministry said it was investigating whether there was a technical reason for the initial lack of communication between the plane and Israeli ground control.

 

The Jerusalem Post reported that the incident was the closest that the Israeli Air Force has ever come to firing on a civilian airliner.