Italian hijack scare

Italian fighter jets were reportedly scrambled yesterday after an air traffic control gaffe led to reports of a hijack. The BBC News website reports that there were 124 people aboard the Air Berlin flight, which was heading from Nuremburg to Rome when the incident took place. Two F-104 jets were reportedly sent to intercept the flight following a “radio communications error”, and once the flight had landed safely at Rome’s Ciampino airport, passengers were kept on board for two hours while police searched the plane. The Italian civil aviation authority reportedly said: “There was a radio communication error and a state of alert was called as a precautionary measure,” adding that the pilot had accidentally set off a cockpit hijack alarm. However, a spokesman for the carrier denied this, adding: “There were neither technical nor human problems on board.”