The interception by the Eurofighters took off from the base of the 51 ° Stormo Caccia di Istrana.
In the late afternoon of today, Monday 2 January, a pair of Eurofighter interceptor fighter aircraft of the Air Force, on alert service, took off from the Istrana air base, home of the 51st Wing, to reach and identify a Cessna 525 civil aircraft took off from Palma de Mallorca and headed for Vienna which during the route had temporarily lost radio contact with the national civil air traffic bodies.
The immediate take-off order, in technical jargon "scramble", was given by the CAOC (Combined Air Operation Center) of Torrejon in Spain, the NATO body responsible for the area, in coordination with the Aerospace Operations Command (COA) of Poggio Renatico and the bodies of the Armed Force responsible for the surveillance of national and NATO airspace.
The interception and "visual identification" (VID), which took place in the skies over Parma, was made possible thanks to the coordinates and information provided by the "fighter guide" staff from the ground. After reaching the aircraft and escorting it for a short distance, the crew of the civilian aircraft re-established radio contact with the relevant air traffic control bodies. The pair of Eurofighter aircraft thus returned to the Istrana military airport to resume the alert readiness shift for the national airspace surveillance service.
The Air Force ensures 24 hours a day, 24 days a year, without interruption, the surveillance of the National Airspace, through a complex air defense system integrated since peacetime with that of the other NATO countries.
There are 25 immediate take-offs (in 2022) - in technical jargon scramble - by Air Force interceptor fighters who took off to go and check and identify aircraft without authorizations to fly over Italian airspace or which had lost radio contact with national air traffic control units. The immediate take-off order is given by the CAOC (Combined Air Operation Centre) of Torrejon (Spain), responsible for the surveillance service of the southern European airspace, to the operations rooms of the 11th DAMI Group of Poggio Renatico (FE) and of the 22nd DAMI Group of Licola (NA). The two Groups are placed, through the DAMI Department, under the command of the Aerospace Control Brigade which performs the functions of Service Provider and Armed Forces contact person, through the Aerospace Operations Command, in the Integrated Missile Air Defense and Coordination and Control sectors of Air Traffic.