Cathay Pacific A350 Triggers NATO Alert Over Hungary, Fighter Jets Deployed

A Cathay Pacific jet operating a long haul flight was intercepted by fighter jets over Hungary, and there are more questions than answers as of now as to how the plane “lost contact” with air traffic control.

The 5,994-mile flight operated the standard flight path, and the flight was in the air for 13hr40min. However, that doesn’t mean it was a routine flight, as the plane was intercepted by NATO fighter jets over Hungary. Here’s how Hungarian Defense Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi described what happened on Facebook:

Today at 13:42 an alarm was ordered for NATO QRA(I) standby aircraft pair, because an A350 Chinese Aircraft flying on the Hong Kong-London route (still in Romanian airspace) failed to contact the Romanian Civil Air Control. The Hungarian squad took off at 13:51 and at the Hungarian border, the Chinese aircraft with a visual warning, which then contacted the air control. The task is over, the stand-by aircraft returned to its base in Kecskemét. Thank you to the guardians!

Sometimes pilots will forget to switch frequencies, or will accidentally switch to the wrong frequency. However, that doesn’t typically prompt a fighter jet response. For example, if pilots simply forgot to switch frequencies, you’d think the air traffic controllers expecting to hear from the Cathay Pacific plane would check with that frequency. Meanwhile if the pilots switched to the wrong frequency and didn’t get a response, you’d think they’d go back to their previous frequency, to figure out what was going on.

I’m not saying this is the case, but one wonders if this might’ve been a situation where both pilots at the controls were asleep briefly? A Hong Kong to London flight has four pilots, and the idea is that two pilots are at the controls and two are resting at cruise altitude. However, on long haul flights it’s also not unusual to have controlled rest in the flight deck, where one person dozes off.

Sometimes — though very rarely — both people end up accidentally falling asleep. For example, in 2022, we saw both pilots on a transatlantic ITA Airways flight fall asleep, and just months later, we saw both pilots on an Ethiopian Airlines flight fall asleep, causing them to overfly the runway at cruising altitude, and have the autopilot disengage.

Now, in terms of circumstances, this wouldn’t fit the typical profile of a flight where both pilots fall asleep. While it was a long haul flight, it was light outside the entire way, the pilots would’ve had some rest at this point in the flight, and it was a morning departure, so they should’ve boarded pretty well rested. But still, that theory seems more likely than anything else I can come up with. It’ll be interesting to see what an investigation reveals.

Bottom line

A Cathay Pacific Airbus A350 triggered a NATO alert over Hungary, when the plane reportedly lost contact with air traffic control for an extended period of time. Fighter jets were deployed to fly up next to the aircraft, and at that point, communication was restored.

A great solo travel tip spotted this week on One Mile at a Time.