Not Listening To Your Radio Might Get You Shot!
Down, that is. If you’re a pilot – a dumbass pilot.
This July saw two Swedish JAS 39 being scrambled against a Norwegian civilian airliner on its way to Arlanda airport near Stockholm, Sweden’s capital.
On a flight from Spain to Sweden, ATC lost contact with the plane as it passed into French airspace, passed through German airspace and headed for Sweden. German ATC contacted the Swedish military, since the plane’s pilots responded neither on their assigned channel nor on the emergency band, which is to be monitored at all times, by all pilots. ATC in Denmark, Germany and Sweden were continuously trying to contact the pilots during the 60 minutes (approx) that the ComLoss situation lasted.
In a statement to the press, Norwegian says the pilots switched to the wrong band when leaving Spanish airspace, but that they were monitoring the emergency band. ATC in three countries, including Swedish military sources say this just cannot be true, since none of them were able to contact the pilots until the two Swedish JAS Gripen (Griffin) fighters made eye-to-eye contact with the two errants flying the thing.
Norwegian says it feels scrambling the two fighters were an over reaction – though they perfectly well know that doing so is standard procedure anywhere in the world. No wonder this airline often comes across as arrogant.
The morale here? Better listen to your radio if you’re an airline pilot on your way in a giant aluminium tube on its way across four or five countries – fighter planes just don’t joke around, and once you see those behind the grey helmet’s visor peers in at you, you know you’re in trouble. Also, there’s the little matter of all the passengers you’re endangering – there’s been no mention of that from Norwegian, by the way. It seems they really don’t care all that much.
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