The Civil Aviation Authority of Hong Kong reported on Friday (August 14) that the crew of Cathay Pacific Airlines misheard the instructions from air traffic controllers for another flight and tuned into the wrong radio frequency, causing temporary loss of contact for the flight over Romanian airspace.
On July 4, Cathay Pacific flight CX257 carrying over 300 passengers took off from Hong Kong bound for Heathrow Airport in London. The flight entered Romanian airspace without establishing contact with the Romanian Civil Aviation Authority. About nine minutes after losing contact over Romania, the incident prompted two NATO fighter jets to intercept.
The Civil Aviation Authority stated on Friday that the government has completed the review of the comprehensive investigation report submitted by Cathay Pacific Airlines.
A spokesperson for the Civil Aviation Authority mentioned that the report indicated the communication equipment on the aircraft was functioning normally. The department expressed “serious concerns” about the incident and instructed Cathay Pacific Airlines to implement relevant improvement measures, such as providing additional training and evaluation for the involved crew members.
At that time, Hungarian Minister of Defense, Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, stated that two Hungarian fighter jets intercepted the flight and visually warned the “Chinese-registered aircraft” near the Hungarian border. Subsequently, the involved aircraft made contact with the control tower and the fighter jets returned to the airbase.
On Friday, a spokesperson for Cathay Pacific Airlines emphasized in response to inquiries from the South China Morning Post that “Cathay Pacific Airlines takes this incident very seriously. Following the incident, we have implemented multiple improvement measures to further reduce the likelihood of similar incidents recurring.”
However, the specific measures were not detailed by the spokesperson.