The Philippine Air Force scrambled fighter jets to intercept an aircraft that was headed into the country’s airspace.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the PAF said that the Philippine Defense Control Center (PADCC) detected an unidentified inbound aircraft into the Philippine Air Defense Identification Zone (PADIZ), approximately 120 nautical miles northwest of Bolinao, Pangasinan.
The PAF said the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) classified the inbound aircraft as an “unknown track of interest” and it issued a “scramble” order to two FA-50 jets stationed at the PADCC and were given the mission to intercept the unknown aircraft for visual identification
The PAF said that the aircraft was at 21,000 feet flying at 265 knots heading North East. It said that the FA-50s flew at the maximum allowable speed towards the direction of the unknown aircraft.
The aircraft changed direction towards the North and increased its speed to 400 knots and headed away from the Philippine airspace, it added, saying that intercept was terminated at 9:45 a.m.
“In past decades, aircraft flying without clearance would willfully violate the Philippine airspace knowing that they will not be challenged; today our airspace is being closely monitored jointly by the Philippine Air Force and the Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines,” the PAF said. (AW)
