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IAF fighter jets scrambled to intercept an unidentified aircraft suspected to be hostile this week, only to find out that it carried none other than Quartet Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair, a top military official said Friday.
Blair, the former British prime minister, was flying on a private plane from the World Economic Forum summit in Sinai, Egypt to an investment conference in Bethlehem on Wednesday when his plane penetrated Israeli airspace and failed to respond to repeated control tower radio calls demanding it identify itself, the official said.
As is common practice in such a case, the IAF scrambled two fighter jets to intercept the aircraft. They flew above Blair's plane and quickly established contact with the cockpit, whose pilot informed them of the famous traveler on board, the official added. Blair's plane apparently had a technical malfunction and could not hear the Israeli control tower's calls.
When asked about the incident, the army spokesman's office said "the air force does not comment on its operational activities."
Blair spokesman Matthew Doyle, who was also on board, said Blair and others were unaware of the drama unfolding around them and only found out about it all when fielding calls from reporters.
"Mr. Blair was one of a number of delegates on a flight back from the World Economic Forum in Sharm e-Sheikh," he said Friday. "We were not aware of any problem at the time, and have not been notified of any issue with the flight."

Source: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite? ... 2FShowFull

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This tech snafu needs some overhauling, imo. I don't believe we can afford to lose such monumental human assets today representing world wide development and modernization due to a lousy old-school malfunction. There should be some form of advanced, standardized civilian VIP IFF communication link, transponder, etc, operated in these cases.

Interesting post anyway.

Senior member Joined: Jul 01, 2007 Posts: 368

Why? The IAF just used the pilot's Mk 1 eyeball and it worked out fine.

Sounds like the system worked as it should. Aircraft had some form of radio failure, Jets were scrambled, they intercepted the target, identified the target, were able to make communication with the pilot and verified his intentions. This is actually normal procedure and it happens almost every day. The only reason that this made the news is because of the passenger on board the aircraft. Taking down an aircraft is the very last option. There are numerous steps that have to be taken, numerous attempts of establishing communication (radios, hand signals, dropping flares in front of target aircraft, rocking wings, ect...)with target aircraft before a single shot is fired. There have been THOUSANDS of active air scrambles and intercepts here in America since 9/11 without a single shot being fired. The system works, and it works well.

Very good points and true.

Even though it may have been out of the crew’s control, flying in that area with a "Duff" Comm/Nav system is crazy. Hell it may even been switchology. Shrug

I just remember that tragic time when Spandahlem took out them Blackhawks.

Thanks for clarification and educaion, Block25.

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IAF almost "Splash" Tony Blair