The immediate take-off of the two fighters of the 51st Stormo was ordered to intercept a civilian aircraft that had cut off communications
Yesterday afternoon, 12 August, two Air Force Eurofighter F-2000 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 verify a civil aircraft that had lost radio contact with the air traffic authorities.
The aircraft, a Chair Airlines Airbus 320, which took off from Palma de Mallorca and headed for Zurich, was crossing Italian airspace when it cut off communications, thus triggering the alarm and interception procedure.
The two interceptor fighters of the 51st Wing of Istrana, under the guidance of the Air Defense controllers of the 11th DAMI Group of Poggio Renatico, were notified after take-off that the aircraft's radio communications had been restored. Seizing this opportunity, the Aerospace Operations Command (COA) changed the status of the mission, which from operational was transformed into training, taking advantage of the opportunity to carry out some procedures and events foreseen by the pilot training program, training which must be carried out constantly to ensure maximum efficiency and intervention capacity.
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 Air Defense Group (DAMI) of Poggio Renatico (Fe) and by the 22nd Radar Group of Licola (Naples), while the intervention in flight it is secured by four bases: 4th Wing of Grosseto, 36th Wing of Gioia del Colle and 37th Wing of Trapani Birgi and 51st Wing of Istrana, the latter permanently starting from April 2020. All the aforementioned wings are equipped with Eurofighter fourth generation fighter aircraft.