False report about the hijacking of a Norwegian plane: Danish fighter jets moved out

Two Danish F16 fighter jets followed a Norwegian plane to Oslo Airport on Thursday afternoon. A false report about a hijacking was triggered, Norwegian police confirm to VG.

– An alarm was erroneously triggered about a hijacking, but it was clarified early on that it was not real, says operations manager Ronny Samuelsen in the East police district to VG.

He states that this happened at 4pm and that it concerned a Norwegian flight which was on its way from Spain to Oslo Airport.

– I know there have been two Danish fighter planes up, but I don’t know what they have done, says Samuelsen. He says that the alarm was mistakenly triggered on the plane.

He adds that no measures were taken on the Norwegian side.

Communications adviser Anna-Lena Nordling confirms to VG that it is a matter of an erroneously sent message about hijacking.

– There was an erroneously sent message about hijacking initiated by the aircraft, which was rectified immediately when the pilots discovered this. It then goes to Norwegian’s operations centre, and then some routines are triggered which resulted in these fighter jets escorting the plane, says Nordling.

– Are the pilots controlling this?

– You can reason your way up to that.

She adds that nine minutes after the message was sent out, they were told that everything was in order. Nordling says she cannot comment further on the matter.

– Unfortunately, we do not have any more information now.

Several Danish media write that there were two F16 fighters that moved out over Jutland on Thursday afternoon.

– On Thursday afternoon, the aviation authorities had reason to believe that there could be a problem with a civil aircraft, which was flying on a route west of Jutland towards Norway, writes the Danish defense in an email to TV Midtvest.

The withdrawal of the F16 planes then triggered a huge crash over Jutland. Danish media write that there was shaking in both houses and windows.

– The Danish F16s followed the civilian plane to Gardermoen Airport in Norway, where the Norwegian authorities took over the case. The Danish F16s returned to Denmark again, the Danish defense further informs.