Air France interception over Amritsir (India)

[Dr747]

Just heard an unconfirmed news on ARY News channel that Indian Airforce has forced an Air France plane to land at Amritsir airport for using unauthorised communication mean...No further details given in the story.
Does anyone know if its true and what is the story.
(Some other local chanels are giving one liners on this but no details.)

[badgerh]

It appears that the incident did not include a "forced landing". Intercept and return to base after recognition of the plane.

MiG 29 intercepts Air France plane over Amritsar | Top News (http://www.topnews.in/mig-29-intercepts-air-france-plane-over-amritsar-2207281)

[Avman]

No drama. Just a temporary radio comm failure (too many reasons, from human factors to technical factors, to mention here why that happens) and the military get to have some fun with a scramble and intercept to go check all is OK and the a/c is that which it should be. We follow the same procedures here in Europe.

[FrequentSLF]

(too many reasons, from human factors to technical factors, to mention here why that happens)

would be interesting to know what are those factors, since the aircraft was intercepted.

[Avman]

It is standard procedure to intercept an aircraft which is (apparently) no longer in communication with ATC. If you want to know more try making a search. It's all been covered before.

[Edforce1]

http://content.yieldmanager.com/ak/q.gif IAF scrambles jets after French aircraft sends wrong code

The Indian Air Force scrambled its MiG 29 fighter jets to intercept an Air France [ Images (http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=france) ] flight entering India from Pakistan over Amritsar [ Images (http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=amritsar) ] as the aircraft had switched on wrong Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) code, on Thursday.

"Taking prompt action after our radars detected an unknown aircraft over our territory, we scrambled two of our MiG 29 air defence fighter jets from Adampur air base to intercept the aircraft at around 0610 hours in the morning, as it had switched on a wrong IFF code," IAF officials said in New Delhi [ Images (http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=delhi) ]. "The mission was aborted soon after the fighters took off as the French aircraft had switched over to the right codes," they added. IFF codes are meant to help the ground-based radars to automatically differentiate between friendly and enemy aircraft.

The French Airliner's Airbus 343 aircraft was on its way from Paris to Bangkok and was entering India after flying over Lahore [ Images (http://search.rediff.com/imgsrch/default.php?MT=lahore) ] in Pakistan. "After the aircraft switched over to the right codes, it was allowed to proceed towards its destination and the IAF jets came back to its base," they said. After the 26/11 attacks, the IAF has been keeping a tight vigil on the borders to thwart any attempt by non-state actors to carry out any 9/11 type aerial strikes in India.

[G-CPTN]

BBC NEWS | South Asia | India intercepts Air France plane (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/8225639.stm)

[LeandroSecundo]

Hello,

It is standard procedure to intercept an aircraft which is (apparently) no longer in communication with ATC. If you want to know more try making a search. It's all been covered before.

Exactly
If you want a complete review of the standard of interception (in USA) .. please read the report of the enquiry US comission about the events of the infamous 9/11 :ugh:

Regards.

[Transition Layer]

Air France seem to suffer a lot of radio problems over India/Pakistan/Afghanistan...and just by coincidence it always seems to happen when they are given a speed restriction or altitude they're not very happy with!

[ve3id]

Surely civilian aircraft don't carry IFF, or am I missing something here? The encryption equipment required would not be allowed out of military control, would it?

[noip]

Semantics ... I'd suggest the "wrong" transponder code was inadvertently set, triggering the "escort" ..

N

[iflytb20]

I believe even the Civil XPDRs use IFF.
IFF is still in use by both military and civilian aircraft. Modes 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 are for military use only. Modes 1, 2 and 3 are collectively known as Selective Identification Feature (SIF) modes. Civilian aircraft use modes A, C and S. Mode C which includes barometric pressure altitude information is often used in conjunction with Mode A. Mode A is often referred to as mode 3/A due to the similarity to the military Mode 3. Mode S is a new civilian mode developed to replace both Mode A and C.This is from Identification friend or foe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identification_friend_or_foe)

That was what happened in the Iran Air Shootdown when it was wrongly identified as a hostile..

The short distance made for a simple flight pattern: climb to 14,000 feet (4,300 m), cruise for a short time, and descend into Dubai. The airliner was transmitting a friend-or-foe identification code for a civilian aircraft and maintained English-speaking radio contact to civil flight control.More here. Iran Air Flight 655 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655)

Cheers