German fighter jets escort a passenger plane to Nuremberg after a hijacking alert

A flight from Greece to Germany landed safely in Nuremberg on Tuesday (October 13, 2026), after a hijacking alarm from the cockpit, which was attributed to a technical fault, led to the German air force sending two fighter planes to deal with the situation.

Corendon Airlines attributed the cause to a defect in the radio communications system, stressing that “no emergency occurred, and the passengers, the flight crew, or the aircraft itself were not exposed to any danger at any stage.”

The airport stated that the accident that occurred on board a Boeing 737-800 plane, which had taken off from the Greek island of Corfu, caused a temporary suspension of operations at Nuremberg Airport, which is the plane’s scheduled destination, before air traffic returned to normal later.

The German police said on the

A German Air Force spokesman said that two Eurofighter planes took off from Neuburg Air Base in southern Germany and accompanied the passenger plane until it landed.

Germany has two units dedicated to this type of rapid response, each of which includes two fighter aircraft, in order to assess the situation when contact with civilian aircrews is lost, something that the Air Force website indicates happens on average once or twice a month.

This position came less than a month after a co-pilot on a flight from Dubai to Israel attacked the pilot of the plane using an emergency axe, an incident that the UAE Attorney General described as a “terrorist operation.”

Turkey-based Corendon said the emergency code was sent while the plane was flying in Croatian airspace “due to a brief technical glitch in the radio communications system.”

The company added: “The situation was monitored immediately, investigations began quickly, all necessary preparations were made, and the plane landed safely at Nuremberg Airport.”

Air traffic at the airport had already witnessed disruption during the night and into Tuesday morning due to the detection of what was likely a drone.

The German authorities have been on high alert since a failed attack with a bomb-laden drone occurred at a German airport in August, an attack for which the authorities held Russia responsible.

Russia denied any role in the matter.