Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 freighter intercepted after losing ATC communication

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 lost communications with ATC while over the Balkan States on October 15th. The cargo freighter registered ET-ALO was performing flight number ET-3717. The aircraft departed Liege Airport in Belgium at 15:58, over three hours behind schedule. During the flight, communications were lost for over an hour. Following the alarming flight, the aircraft landed safely on runway 07R at 23:37 at Addis Ababa Bole International Airport in Ethiopia. The flight crew had been in contact with ATC since departing LGG with no complications. While traveling through Croatian airspace, the pilots were in contact with Zagreb Center. After being handed off to another controller, the flight crew stopped communicating with ATC. The controllers tried to reach the flight crew on multiple frequencies, including the guard frequency, which is reserved for emergency use. All attempts to contact the pilots were to no avail. ATC even solicited the assistance of other aircraft to try and reach the pilots. The pilots aboard the Ethiopian flight took proper action and continued to follow their flight plan. After departing Croatian airspace, the airplane traversed Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania before entering Greek airspace. Once over Greece, Athens Center attempted to contact the flight crew and announced that fighter jets would be scrambled to intercept the freighter. No response was heard from the pilots. Story has more.<br/>