Interception over Turkey ?
 

From a local Turkish news paper.

Airliner Scare Over Turkey
From what we can make of a Turkish news report, warplanes from that country were scrambled to force down a German airliner that passed over on its way from Egypt to Munich -- but they apparently failed to intercept it. According to a somewhat sketchy translation of the Zaman Daily News, the A321 (airline unknown) reportedly crossed over Turkey without contact with air traffic control. The fighters were scrambled but, for reasons yet unexplained, didn't find the airliner. The news service quoted unnamed government sources describing the operation as a "fiasco." The news service said the airline was over Turkish territory for about 50 minutes and passed over both Ankara and Istanbul where contact with ATC is mandatory. It's speculated that the pilots were simply on the wrong frequency but authorities didn't know that at the time. "What worries us is that it is impossible to know the intention of the aircraft," a government official told the news service, on condition of anonymity. "If the pilot is malicious, if he changes the direction of flight and plunges; then the war plane shoots it down." :ooh:

Ok boys... steady do not move...and keep talking to the illegal Arzan.

Mercurius

What should worry the Turks is they couldn’t find the airliner.

Which Turkish paper ?
Want to tell my mates there to get it.

Doubt that they could not intercept the plane.
Another un-informed journalist stretching the truth probably.
I have a brother in law that is a Col. in the Turkish military.
Their military and training is very good from what I have seen.
Its the many other problems that should worry people in Turkey.
From the government on down.

That statement might cast some light on the failure to intercept bearing in mind that it is normally a decision making process heavily influenced by the government and controlled by civil and military authorities jointly.

Earl

Have you heard the expression : "Malta yiok" ?
And this has nothing to do with the alleged incident.
Ask your brother in law about it.
:O

I stand corrected daidalos, but it is also common for government agencies not to work together which could have caused this incident.

OK guys – “off thread” I know – but I asked a mate fluent in Turkish and he don’t know.

So what is “Malta yiok” ? Please

Is it because of the lack of communication between Nicosia and Ankara FIR's and the A/c ended up tuned in the wrong frequency? There articles in cypriot newspapers sugesting that!:confused:

Same here.
Was told it has no meaning.
ATC does need a little improvment in this area.
But then again we have all seen worse.

Malta yok
 

Off-topic but it might help to solve a minor mystery.

"Malta yok" roughly translates as "there is no Malta". In the year 1645, the story goes, the Ottoman sultan Ibrahim the Mad ordered his fleet to attack the Christian island of Malta in the western Mediterranean. Upon receiving the order, however, Ibrahim's chief admiral, fearing such a move would end in disaster, placed a candle on his naval map, allowed the wax drippings to fall on the little island until they covered it, declared to his adjutants "Malta yok," and sailed off to attack the Venetians in Crete.

It was LTU659. I was working that evening when it all happened. They didn't contact nether Turkey, nor Bulgaria. Nobody new anything. Which airliner, flight number, type of the A/C, it was all unknown. We, also, had a lot of problems with our military, persuading them to trust us that it was civil A/C etc... Fortunately, they have tried published ACC freq. and got in contact with us...

I thought that planes have flight plans filed so they would know it's supposed to be there?

One must wonder how two people in Turkey didn’t know – but a guy in the Sheriff’s domain does.

But I for one thank him :ok: – it’s amazing what can be learnt here.

PS
So we don’t start another “what’s that mean” – for the non UK ones here – Nottingham = Robin Hood (steal from rich – give to poor), Robins arch enemy = Sheriff of Nottingham.

philip2004uk
You are right, however, somebody has to tell you that the squawk you see is related to data from the FPL list and to pass the "estimate". Nowadays, flight data, are exchanged, between two adjacent units, automatically, via OLDI (on line data interchange). The problem was that Turks, as well as Bulgarians, didn't have any idea what the target was. When pilots called us and said the call sign, we didn't have problem in finding them, because flight plan was regularly filled and distributed. Pilot said that they were transferred to wrong frequency shortly after departure. Why they didn't come back to previous freq. or, why they didn't use, or listen to, 121.5 I wouldn't know (Sofia was repeatedly calling them, but with no reply).

MFBWM

What sort of OLDI did you receive and was a LAM send back?

Egypt -> Munich

Why would you want to fly via Ankara and Istanbul? Dispatch error? Sight-seeing? Journo typo?

Or maybe justv the shortest way....;)

There was no OLDI msg (that includes LAM) because neither Turkey nor Sofia had any idea what that target was (I guess that was why fighters were deployed). The only thing you could see was the squawk. Sofia was transmitting on 121.5: "Traffic squawking XXXX, FL300 contact Sofia on129.1". It was repeated several times.
Actually, there was one funny transmition "Traffic squawking XXXX, with squawk, hmmm (sound of confusion)" But that is normal level of stress when you are negotiating, with military, not to shot down something, that you deeply believe, is a passenger jet.

" may the force be with me"
Quote: negotiating with the military not to shoot something down that you deeply to believe is a passenger jet"
True: after the frequency change and no contact was made LTU should have been back on the original or last frequency stating no contact on frequency given.
I seriously doubt that there was any negotiating about a decision as to splash this aircraft or not, if so then this a serious
problem over Turkish airspace, maybe I missed something here.

I hope it is due to lack of communication between Nicosia CTL and Ercan CTL/Istanbul. The whole situation there is totally ridiculous. Airliner almost shot down, while everything could have been resolved with 1 phone call to the previous sector. Guess it would be a good excuse to exchange phone numbers.