Kenya Airlines Plane Loses Communication Over Germany, Fighters Scrambled to Look for the Aircraft

A flight bound for Amsterdam, the Netherlands, from Nairobi, Kenya, went missing during the journey, inducing a sense of fear among the air traffic controllers, who had to dispatch a pair of fighter jets to locate the aircraft. The Boeing 787-8 Flight KQ118 took off from the airstrip of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at midnight on September 20. The flight was scheduled to fly over multiple countries like Egypt, Sudan, and Ethiopia before entering into the Dutch airspace. The last country on the journey was Germany.

As the flight entered the air periphery of Germany, the air traffic controller suddenly lost contact with the aircraft. The flight was cruising at an altitude of roughly 40,000 feet when the communication between the flight and the ground broke. Seeing the situation getting serious, the German base dispatched two Eurofighter jets to look for the aircraft.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the traffic controllers were stacking speculation as to how the flight could’ve lost contact with the ground within a 20-minute window. Among the stack was one that said that the pilots must have forgotten to switch frequencies between the international airspaces – from Austria to Germany – that led to the communication breaking off, reported Aviation Herald.

After a thorough 30minute-long search by the two supersonic jets, the aircraft was located and contacted by the two jets to restore communication with the air traffic controller. Subsequently, flight KQ118 Boeing 787-8 landed safely on Amsterdam’s airstrip.

Communication breaking between the aircraft and the air traffic controller for a brief period of time becomes a matter of grave concern since the implications can be extremely dangerous. The unfortunate happenings of 9/11 resulted in a reinforced communication system and the officials on the ground being more prudent than before.

The aircraft dispatch is also included in the reinforcement. The fighter jets can be used to make immediate contact with the lost aircraft. In case of a hijack and possible weaponizing of the flight, the jets can be given directions to take down the aircraft. However, such decisions are generally the last resort.

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