The Italian Air Force patrols in Romania

Photo: Italian air force

From the beginning of May until the end of August in the airspace of Romania four Italian warplanes will be patrolling and they will be in charge of the implementation of the “air policy” mission. As announced by the NATO Allied Air Command these days; they will be permanently located in the Romanian air base “Mihail Kogalnichenau” in the south-eastern part of the country in following months. Pilots of “eurofighter” and technical personnel will be commanded by Colonel of Italian Air Force Andrea Fazi. He has experience in the “air policy” missions as he has so far conducted a similar mission in Bulgaria in 2017. All happenings during the flights of Italian ” eurofighter ” over Romania will be closely monitored by the Allied Air Force Command at Ramstein base in Germany and the Operations Center at Torreon in Spain. A “MIG 21” belonging to the Romanian Air Force will take part in the Italian air force’s air patrols.

We recall that the essence of the “air policy” mission is patrol of NATOs hunting airplanes in the airspace of members of the military alliance and their reaction in cases when an unknown military aircraft is approaching, or a passenger plane whose pilot does not respond to flight control invitations. The second possibility was particularly significant after the terrorist attacks on the US Twin Towers building in New York in 2001. Their pilots did not respond to flight control invitations and since then, in case a contact is lost again with a passenger plane, pilots of airplanes carrying out a “air policy” mission have to determine if this was due to a malfunction or because of a conscious intention. It has recently happened that Italian warplanes, patrolling in the airspace above Montenegro, intercepted an unknown passenger plane that flew over that state. His pilot did not respond to calls to identify what was initially a cause for concern. However, thanks to pilots of “eurofighter” that intercepted him and conducted visual control, it was found that the reason for this was a malfunction on the devices of a passenger plane and that there was no reason for concern.

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