Nearing midnight during this week in history on Oct. 10, 1985, an EgyptAir Boeing 737 lifted off from Cairo International Airport. Its destination was Tunis, Tunisia. Seventy-five minutes into the three-plus hour flight and unbeknown to the EgyptAir captain, the commercial airliner was surrounded by fighter jets. It must have come as quite a shock when the captain’s request to land in Tunis was denied. It was the first of a number of shocking in-flight developments. The captain was also unable to communicate with Egypt. Scrambling for another alternative to land the plane, he requested to approach the airport in Athens. Denied. Soaring over the Mediterranean Sea, unable to contact Egyptian authorities for directions and being denied a place to land in the pitch of night, the captain appeared out of options. Suddenly, four F-14 Tomcats turned on their lights and moved wing-to-wing with the 737.
It was the Americans. They had arrived on the orders of President Ronald Reagan to intercept the flight and force it to land at the NATO air base in Sigonella, Sicily. The F-14 Tomcats had been guided to the 737 by the E-2C Hawkeye radar surveillance planes. When the EgyptAir captain attempted to communicate with Egyptian officials, it was the EA-6B Prowler that jammed the airliner’s communications. The captain of the commercial plane had little choice but to cooperate with the fighter jets.
