A Croatian Rafale fighter intercepted a Boeing aircraft over the Korana area at 11:02, as part of the surveillance and protection of its own airspace (Air Policing). The pilot of the Raf visually identified the aircraft and established radio contact with the crew.
The air operation was launched following an order from the Joint Air Command in Torrejón (CAOC Torrejón) for the take-off of a Croatian Rafale in a intercept mission with the task of visual identification. CAOC Torrejón declared that civil aircraft as a possible threat. According to information from the Command Reporting Centre in Italy, the civil aircraft had a transponder code of 7500 set, which indicates a hijacked aircraft.
The Raf performed a combat air patrol in the area between Rijeka and Delnice at 11:18, while the Maltese aircraft entered Slovenian airspace at 11:20. This is a Boeing 737-800 of the company Corendon Airlines European, which on flight XR456 travelled from Greek Corfu to Nuremberg.
The aircraft landed safely in Nuremberg at 12:16, where air traffic was suspended temporarily due to the security alert. German police confirmed that the pilot was not accessible via radio link after the 7500 code was activated. One of the possibilities being investigated by investigators is a fault in the cockpit radio equipment. Due to the security alert, the aircraft was escorted to Nuremberg by German fighter aircraft. The police inspected the aircraft after landing and stated that there was no danger.
During the air operation, the Deputy Prime Ministers Ivan Anušić, Tomo Medved, Davor Božinović and Oleg Butković were in coordination with the Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, as well as with the Croatian Air Force. The Republic of Croatia from 1 January 2026 will independently monitor and protect its airspace with Rafale aircraft within the NATO integrated air defence system NATINAMDS.
The Ministry of Defence did not confirm that the Maltese aircraft was actually hijacked, but only that it was marked as a possible threat due to the emission of code 7500. The reason for the activation of the code and the findings after establishing contact with the crew were not published, nor was the flight number intercepted by the Croatian Raf published by the Ministry of Defence.
