Crimeupdated 1h ago2 min read
Germany Scrambles Jets After Corendon Boeing 737-800 Sends False Hijack Alert From Radio Glitch
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Corendon Airlines Boeing 737-800 transmitted hijack code 7500 due to radio malfunction. Nuremberg Airport briefly shut; two Eurofighter jets escorted the aircraft.
False hijack alert
German authorities briefly closed Nuremberg Airport and scrambled fighter jets after a Corendon Airlines Boeing 737-800 sent an emergency hijacking alert while flying over Croatia. Corendon said the Boeing 737-800 was en route from the Greek holiday island of Corfu to Nuremberg, Germany, and that it sent out an emergency code “due to a brief malfunction in the radio communication system.”
German police spokesman Michael Petzold said authorities had “received a code directly from the cockpit that suggested a hijacking,” and he added that “we had to assume the worst, that it might indeed be a hijacking.” The aircraft landed safely in Nuremberg, and the airline said “no emergency situation occurred” and that the 178 passengers, flight crew and aircraft had not been in danger at any point.
Escorts and airport shutdown
German police said the cockpit transmitted the code 7500, and the pilot could no longer be reached by radio, prompting alarm scrambles as a safety precaution. The German air force spokesperson said two Eurofighter jets scrambled from Neuburg Air Base in southern Germany and accompanied the passenger jet until it landed.
Nuremberg Airport temporarily suspended all flight operations on Tuesday, and the airport later resumed flight operations at around the same time passengers were allowed to leave the aircraft. The Daily Reflector reported that authorities briefly shut an airport and scrambled fighter jets after an emergency call raised fears of a possible hijacking but turned out to be over a radio problem, and it said the carrier’s statement described “no emergency situation occurred.”
Security backdrop and aftermath
German authorities treated the alert as a genuine security threat because the code was accompanied by the loss of radio contact, and the airport remained closed while officers examined the aircraft and passengers stayed on board. Croatian Defence Minister Ivan Anušić said the investigation found a fault within the radio communication system and that the backup system was also affected, describing the combination as highly unusual.
The incident came amid heightened concerns about aviation security after the copilot on board a Flydubai jet attacked the captain with an emergency crash axe, forcing the flight to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia on September 30. Al Jazeera said the hijack scare followed the United Arab Emirates’ prosecutor general describing the Flydubai copilot’s actions as a “terrorist attack,” and it said the false alert was triggered while the Boeing 737-800 was flying over Croatia.