Hungary scrambled fighter jets over a hijacked Cessna flying towards the Paks nuclear power plant

On the morning of 29 August, Hungary scrambled a pair of Saab JAS 39 Gripen fighter jets after a Cessna 172 light aircraft took off without permission from the airfield in the city of Kalocsa and headed towards the Paks nuclear power plant. The aircraft did not reach the plant — the pilot made an emergency landing in a sunflower field near the village of Gerjen.

According to Hungarian Defence Minister Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, military radars detected the aircraft immediately after take-off, and the alert pair took to the air within a few minutes. The ministry published the statement at 10:02 local time. The fighter jets located the damaged Cessna and remained above the landing site until a rescue helicopter and ground services arrived. No one was injured.

Hungarian police reported at 11:45 that the aircraft had been hijacked from Kalocsa airfield. The pilot got out of the cockpit and walked along Route 512 in a confused state; a passing driver stopped to help, but the man got into his car and tried to drive away. He was stopped and detained a few minutes later — he turned out to be a 24-year-old resident of the settlement of Somor.

According to police, the man was drunk, and the possibility that he had used other substances is also being investigated. A criminal case has been opened over the unlawful taking of a vehicle.

The airspace over Paks is permanently closed: according to the operator HungaroControl’s aeronautical publication, the LHP1 Paks zone is a circle with a radius of 3 km extending from the ground up to flight level FL195 and operating around the clock.

However, neither the Defence Ministry nor the police reported that the Cessna actually entered the prohibited zone over the plant: the aircraft was only flying in its direction. No threat to the nuclear power plant arose, and the infrastructure was not damaged.

This was the second time Hungarian fighter jets had been scrambled in two days: on 28 August, Gripens were scrambled because of a French Piper PA-28 that had entered the country’s airspace without permission. Police and aviation authorities have begun a joint inspection of Kalocsa airfield, followed by inspections of Hungary’s other airports.