Posted on 06/09/2022 9:35:22 PM PDT by American Number 181269513
A two-seater plane whizzed through half a dozen eastern European countries without permission, alerting air forces, before being abandoned in Bulgaria by a mysterious crew, the defence ministry in Sofia said Thursday.
The aircraft flew over Hungary, crossed briefly into Serbia and then Romania before entering Bulgarian airspace at 7:09 pm local time (1609 GMT) on Wednesday, the Bulgarian defence ministry said in a statement.
The twin-engine Beechcraft with two people onboard had no approved flight plan and its transponders were turned off. The pilot did not respond to radio requests and visual signals, the Romanian defence ministry said.
Two Hungarian Gripen fighter jets, two US F-16s and two Romanian F-16s intercepted the intruder one after the other and escorted it until it entered Bulgarian airspace, Bucharest added.
Bulgaria's air force did not immediately send up fighters as "the plane was not considered a threat at any moment," Defence Minister Dragomir Zakov told journalists.
His ministry said flying conditions had been difficult amid a thunderstorm and heavy rain.
The plane had stopped to refuel in the Danube town of Vidin, in northwestern Bulgaria, and the interior ministry later found it abandoned in an old airfield near Targovishte, in the nation's northeast.
The engine was still warm, Interior Minister Boyko Rashkov told journalists.
But the crew had vanished and their whereabouts were still unknown.
Rashkov said the plane was 60 years old and had first set off from Lithuania. It also passed through Poland and Slovakia, he said, meaning it crossed a total of seven Eastern European countries without permission.
(Excerpt) Read more at barrons.com ...
It was intercepted, but not brought down.
It was Tom Cruise. Publicity stunt for Maverick.
“It was intercepted...”
By a few countries and they may not be telling the whole story as they would have gotten the call sign off the aircraft and they knew right then who owned it and where it had been hangered or tied down.
Due to mandates, the FAA globally conducts certain functions for safety in and outside of the United States, such as performing air traffic control handoffs and assessing whether a foreign civil aviation authority complies with international aviation standards. This aircraft was owned by someone and was handed off a number of times on radar. The laws for transponders are in §91.215 ATC transponder and altitude reporting equipment and use. And we were involved as we sent a couple of Falcons to go visit them.
wy69
"... The twin-engine Beechcraft with two people onboard ..."
"... Rashkov said the plane was 60 years old ...."
If Beech made a 2-seat, twin-engined airplane more than 60 years ago, it was a stealth plane, because no one ever has seen it.
How do they know? Did the occupants of the plane leave a note saying why they had stopped? Even if the tanks were found to be empty - that might not have been the reason they stopped. We have no way of knowing their true intentions.
Regards,
I thought he used a P-51 for that????
Because they landed at an airport to refuel.
The article makes it seem like the airport in question was in Vidin, Bulgaria but according to another article they were observed landing and refueling at an aero club (grass air strip) in Debrecen, Hungary. Five or six occupants got out, quickly refueled the plane with jerry cans, and took off again. Hungarian police got there as they were getting ready to take off again, tried to block them from doing so, but they took off 10 minutes later.
The plane was abandoned at an airport that’s been closed for decades in Bulgaria. Interestingly the Bulgarian airport runway is rented a bit later in the summer by gypsies to dry herbs so probably some local knowledge.
The same article I saw this in says that the Bulgarians have opened an investigation for essentially plane theft so the plane was stolen in Lithuania.
Could be a drug flight or people who really wanted out of Lithuania quickly.
Anybody seen Mathius Rust lately?
Beechcraft Model 18 (or “Twin Beech”, as it is also known) is a 6- to 11-seat, twin-engined, low-wing, tailwheel light aircraft manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Continuously produced from 1937 to November 1969 (over 32 years, a world record at the time), over 9,000 were built, making it one of the world's most widely used light aircraft. Sold worldwide as a civilian executive, utility, cargo aircraft, and passenger airliner on tailwheels, nosewheels, skis, or floats, it was also used as a military aircraft.
Note photo at link. Not exactly what most people think of as a Twin Engine Beechraft. This is probably drug smugglers in action.
Need to refuel badly enough and the plane will stop on its own.
Sky King?
It was probably a couple of soy-boys trying to make their way to the Ukraine.
Epstein was on that plane.
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