Press Release

: Published: Thursday, 09 October 2014 18:28

A Boeing commercial aircraft, which was flying from one European capital toward the African continent, lost contact for a few moments with the air control centers. According to the international agreements, in which Albania is a party, the neighboring NATO member countries conduct the air policing of the territory of the Republic of Albania.

The lack of response from this plane, when it was close to the Albanian airspace, put on alert one of the NATO bases, from which a couple of F-16 fighter aircraft took off. The combat aircrafts escorted for 10 minutes the commercial aircraft, up to 8 miles south of the Albanian border with Greece.

During the maneuver, the F-16 aircrafts, although flying over international waters about 20 miles off the Albanian coast, because of the speed over the voice barrier, caused the sonic “boom” considered by residents as an explosion.

We assure the Albanian citizens that this is a procedure followed with high responsibility by the Albanian authorities and the Alliance forces.