News

Airmen from the District of Columbia Air National Guard's 121st Fighter Squadron scrambled at noon to intercept the stray Cessna aircraft after it violated airspace restrictions. The incident sparked evacuations at the White House and Capitol.

Indonesia has sent four F-16 fighter jets to a disputed border region with Malaysia to join patrols by seven Indonesian warships. The jets will be based temporarily in the border area.

The internet newspaper worldtribune.com reported last week that Israel Air Force F-16s intercepted and downed two Syrian MiG-29 Fulcrums over the Mediterranean on Sept. 14, 2004.

During a U.S. army cordon-and-search operation for a suspected anti-Iraqi force cell leader, an F-16 jet mistakenly dropped a 500-pound GPS-guided bomb on a home south of the main northern city of Mosul Saturday, killing at least five people.

Every day in Iraq, soldiers on the ground find themselves under fire. Convoys are attacked along a lonely highway. Patrols catch the deadly eye of snipers. Something. Somewhere. Daily. When it happens, the ground pounders get help from above.

It seems that the Turkish provocation in the Aegean might be escalating again. This morning, two Turkish F-16 reportedly harassed an Olympic Airlines passenger plane en route from the island of Karpathos to the island of Rhodes in southeastern Aegean.

According to the Greek National Defense General Staff, 5 formations consisting of 12 Turkish Air Force F-16s violated the Greek National Airspace in 14 occasions today in the wider region of central Aegean and once over the island of Antipsara at an altitude of 5,000 feet.

During one particular night shift recently in South-West Asia, a team primarily composed of US Air National Guardsmen conducted the first successful drop of a GBU-38 JDAM bomb in combat.

Two Dutch F-16 fighters from Leeuwarden AB, the Netherlands have escorted British Airways flight BA 983. Earlier this week two F-16s from the Belgian Air Force intercepted a Russian airliner over French airspace.

After three months of operations above the Baltic States, the Belgian F-16s are returning home in the forthcoming days. They will be replaced by a Danish detachment for the next three months.

Two Portuguese Air Force (PoAF) F-16s intercepted an airliner on June 23rd. As part of security measures related to the EURO 2004 - European Soccer Championship - there are always 2 F-16s fully armed in the air at the time of the games to patrol the no fly zones around the stadiums.

Two Belgian Air Force F-16 fighter jets intercepted an airliner in Belgian airspace on June 17th. The aircraft was feared hijacked after all communication had been lost. However, this turned out to be caused by defective radio equipment.

Belgian F-16 fighter jets from 349 Sqn, stationed at Zokniai airbase in northwestern Lithuania as part of NATO's Baltic air-policing mission, were srambled on June 2nd to intercept a Russian IL-18 approaching Estonian airspace.

A signal aboard an inbound Singapore Airlines Airbus A340-500 indicated a possible hijacking. An F-16 Fighting Falcon escorted the passenger plane to a remote section of Los Angeles International Airport where it landed around 17.30h Monday.

Over 15 Turkish fighter jets have reportedly violated the Athens FIR (Flight Information Regions) this morning in the north and south Aegean, when Greek Minister of Defense Spilios Spiliotopoulos was on board of an F-16 fighter jet flying over the northeastern Aegean island of Limnos.