Mystery plane puts east Europe air forces on alert

• Two-seater Beechcraft with two people on board had no approved flight plan.
• The plane flew over Hungary before crossing into Serbia and then Romania.
• It was found abandoned in an old airfield near Targovishte.

A two-seater plane flew through half a dozen Eastern European countries without permission, alerting air forces before being abandoned in Bulgaria by an unknown crew, the defence ministry in Sofia said Thursday.

The plane flew over Hungary before crossing into Serbia and then Romania before entering Bulgarian airspace at 7:09 p.m. local time (1609 GMT) on Wednesday, according to the Bulgarian defence ministry.

The twin-engine Beechcraft with two people on board 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.

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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.

However, the crew had vanished and their whereabouts were unknown.

Rashkov stated that the plane was 60 years old and had taken off from Lithuania for the first time. It also went through Poland and Slovakia, he said, crossing seven Eastern European countries without permission.

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