Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways is investigating an incident involving a London-bound plane that was intercepted by Hungarian fighter jets when it briefly lost contact over Romanian airspace and triggered a Nato alert on Saturday.
The city’s flag carrier also said on Wednesday that the safety of the aircraft or people on board was not compromised at any point.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation activated a “quick reaction alert” after the Airbus A350-1000 temporarily failed to establish contact with Romanian civil air traffic control while travelling from Hong Kong to London Heathrow Airport.
The flight in question was CX257, which was carrying more than 300 passengers and took off on July 4 for the company’s regular morning flight to London.
Hungarian defence minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi wrote on social media on Saturday that the alert was ordered at 1.42pm (Central European Time) that day.
“An alert was ordered for a Nato quick reaction alert (interceptor) standby pair of aircraft, because a Chinese-registered A350 type aircraft travelling on the Hong Kong – London route, while located in Romanian airspace, failed to establish contact with Romanian civilian air traffic control,” he wrote.