The immediate take-off of the two fighters of the 51st Wing was ordered to intercept a civilian aircraft that had activated the hijacking code.
On the morning of today 25 June, two Air Force F-2000 Eurofighter fighters, on alert service for the defense of national airspace, carried out an intervention on immediate take-off orders (called "scramble" in military jargon) to intercept and verifying a civilian aircraft that had activated the code identifying a hijacking on board.
During the flight, the Piper PA 28 aircraft, which took off from Ferrara, erroneously entered the emergency code which is used to signal that a hijacking is taking place on board, thus triggering the alarm and interception procedure.
The two fighter interceptors of the 51st Stormo of Istrana, under the guidance of the controllers of the Air Defense of the 11th DAMI Group of Poggio Renatico, once ascertained, in a few minutes, the erroneous entry of the emergency code by the pilot of the PA 28, have resumed their national airspace surveillance service.
The operational mission was activated following the "scramble" order activated by the Aerospace Operational Command responsible for controlling the skies of that area and took place under the control of the operating rooms of the Air Force surveillance and air defense system .
The Air Force ensures seamless surveillance of the national airspace. The Air Defense system against the military threat, since peacetime, has been under the control of NATO which through the Combined Air Operation Center (CAOC) of Torrejon (Spain), carries out the surveillance of the airspace south of the Alps, from the Canary Islands to Turkey and from the Azores Islands to Romania.
The service is guaranteed - for the surveillance, identification and control part - by the 11th Integrated Missile Air Defense Group (DAMI) of Poggio Renatico (Fe) and by the 22nd Radar Group of Licola (Na), while the intervention in flight it is secured by four bases: 4 ° Stormo di Grosseto, 36 ° Stormo di Gioia del Colle and 37 ° Stormo di Trapani Birgi and 51 ° Stormo di Istrana, the latter permanently starting from April 2020. All the aforementioned flocks are equipped with fourth generation Eurofighter fighter aircraft.