“At no time was the plane a threat to civilian or military infrastructure in Bulgaria. Upon entering Bulgarian airspace, the country’s air force was also activated. The plane was reportedly spotted by the Hungarian and Romanian Air Force, which scrambled F-16 jets to intercept the Beechcraft.
The Ministry of Defense announced that the plane entered the airspace of Bulgaria without an approved flight plan shortly after 7 pm on Wednesday. “What’s the purpose? Who are these people? What happened? We are investigating”, the Bulgarian Minister of Interior Boyko Rashkov Rashkov was quoted as saying. The plane entered Bulgaria from the northern city of Vidin, where it landed for refuelling, but it is not known precisely where it was refuelled. The media reported that the air defences in several countries spotted the intruder, scrambling jets to intercept it while trying to initiate contact with the pilot, without success. Six of them, except Serbia, are NATO members. The Bulgarian Ministry of Interior said the plane took off Lithuania and passed through seven countries, including Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Serbia, before landing in Bulgaria. It is unclear why the 60-year-old two-seater flew over almost all of Europe to land in Bulgaria or whether the unknown pilot was alone or had passengers. The aircraft was found abandoned with a still-warm engine.
The prosecutor’s office in the Bulgarian city of Targovishte launched an investigation into a mysterious incident with a small ‘Beechcraft’ plane that flew into the skies of several European countries and landed at a local airfield usually reserved for agricultural aircraft. A small aeroplane toyed with the nerves of the air defences of six NATO members before landing on Thursday (9 June) in a small airfield in Bulgaria, whereby the pilot and passengers promptly disappeared.