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Air Traffic Monitoring => Aviation Audio Clips => Topic started by: J-LucB on February 05, 2016, 03:47:22 PM

Title: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 05, 2016, 03:47:22 PM
I have removed the other conversations...

Taken on LiveATC (my feed !) Bordeaux Control today 10h50 local time (9h50 UTC)

Air Berlin BER344E (but I have not found it today on the maps)
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: GeoffSM1 on February 06, 2016, 02:26:52 AM
Extraordinary! Do you know why the French Air Force took such an interest in the Air Berlin plane? I believe such action would automatically  be taken if there had been a loss of communications. Was that the situation here?
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 06, 2016, 04:28:17 AM
I don't know. It has a strange behaviour nevertheless... http://fr24.com/2016-02-05/09:34/12x/BER344E/8bb3c12
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: flyflyfly on February 07, 2016, 04:08:17 AM
Very interesting. This clearly was a loss of communication. Maybe they turned down the radio volume too much or accidentally switched the frequency of the primary radio. In any case, I feel for the pilots: this is an embarassing moment for the guys in the cockpit. And this definitely has a nasty aftermath for them - with reporting to their airline and lots of questions being asked - or worse...

The radar track shows they climbed to FL370 and changed their heading to 234 while they were still in Swiss airspace. About 10 minutes later they entered French airspace. They had been on a straight and level flight for about 35 minutes (FL370/234) when they were interecepted over Southern France. It does take several minutes before controllers raise an alert. Also, it takes several minutes for the fighters to scramble and intercept. So I guess the communication was already lost when they switched from Swiss to French ATC - or maybe even in the few minutes before, so they never attempted to switch.
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 07, 2016, 08:30:53 AM
Thanks for your analysis  :-D
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: Dr Bob on February 08, 2016, 09:20:23 AM
Do they have the option of also receiving on 121.5 as we do in US?


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Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: flyflyfly on February 08, 2016, 02:00:08 PM
Do they have the option of also receiving on 121.5 as we do in US?

Sure. That's ICAO standard - so the same frequency all over the world. All pilots should monitor 121.5 with a secondary radio when possible (= not busy monitoring something else). It'd be interesting to know if French ATC tried to call the pilots on the guard frequency prior to scrambling the fighter. But it's probably often not going to help anyway: when there's a problem in the cockpit (volume turned off, headphone not properly plugged, ...), they won't hear any transmission - no matter what frequency.
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 09, 2016, 12:55:33 AM
Hi,

Yes, 121.5 is the emergency freq here too. http://www.liveatc.net/search/?icao=lfbu

About ATC, I can monitor only "Bordeaux controle". As you pointed out, the plane has probably been called without success several times by Paris or Marseille and I do not receive them.

J-Luc F1JEK
Title: Re:
Post by: Agusliveatc on February 09, 2016, 07:10:54 AM
Hi guys. What did the fighter literally say in the last communication to the Airbus? The airbus acknowledged maintaining HDG but what the French's fighter say??? Tried to understand many times and I still don't get it

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Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 09, 2016, 08:57:37 AM
"BER344E maintain your elements stand-by for radio and instructions"

Elements = altitude, direction, speed
Title: Re:
Post by: Agusliveatc on February 09, 2016, 09:12:40 AM
 Thanks J-LucB

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Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: VASAviation on February 10, 2016, 01:49:50 PM
Hey guys!

What does the fight says at the beginning? Something like:

"For identification, say callsign, number of flight plan, [..], airfield of departure and airfield of destination"
Title: Re:
Post by: Agusliveatc on February 10, 2016, 05:15:24 PM
Yeeeh I couldn't see it clearly

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Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 11, 2016, 12:38:55 AM
Say Callsign, number of flight plan, diplomatic clearance, airfield of departure...

J-Luc
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: VASAviation on February 11, 2016, 02:51:44 AM
Say Callsign, number of flight plan, diplomatic clearance, airfield of departure...

J-Luc

Awesome!! Thank you very much, my friend!! :lol: :lol:
Title: Re:
Post by: Agusliveatc on February 11, 2016, 07:58:33 AM
I support that last comments lol

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Title: Re:
Post by: Agusliveatc on February 11, 2016, 07:59:17 AM
I mean the last one. Awesome... Thank you very...

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Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 12, 2016, 04:43:15 AM
A frenchy is better to decode French english  :-D
Title: Re:
Post by: Agusliveatc on February 12, 2016, 12:16:19 PM
Amen

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Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: GeoffSM1 on February 12, 2016, 05:59:47 PM
Very interesting. This clearly was a loss of communication. Maybe they turned down the radio volume too much or accidentally switched the frequency of the primary radio.
 It does take several minutes before controllers raise an alert.

Did Controllers try to communicate with the aircraft? I listened to the LiveATC archived file and the one covering the previous period and I didn't hear any calls from the ground. :|
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 13, 2016, 04:47:06 AM
We think as I explained before that the alert was raised before, when the plane was under Marseille-Control responsability. And no one feeds Marseille-control here :-(

I can only monitor Bordeaux Control and 123.45 and 121.5 .

regards
J-Luc
Title: Re:
Post by: Agusliveatc on February 14, 2016, 06:37:13 AM
Yee feed it! I can't for the moment. No computer yet. But once I have it I will try to do

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Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: RonR on February 14, 2016, 12:00:16 PM
When the French fighter identifies himself, it sounds like he is saying "You are being intercepted by French Air Force policy"...what does he mean by "policy" or does he mean "police"?  I'm guessing it's supposed to be "police"  :-)
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: J-LucB on February 14, 2016, 12:25:18 PM
Yes of course, it's a prononciation error.  :|
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: flyflyfly on February 14, 2016, 12:43:11 PM
Or maybe he said "policing". "air-policing" is the standard NATO term for these operations.
Well, anyway. I'm sure the AB pilots understood the message very well. And were in no mood to question the air-force pilot's pronunciation when they saw the fighter next to them... :-D
Title: Re: Air Berlin Airbus intercepted by military aircraft above France
Post by: RonR on February 14, 2016, 01:07:21 PM
Thanks guys,

I only asked because I had never heard pilots use the term "police" before when identifying themselves...I learned something new today  :-)