Air Traffic Control Israel Middle East Europe Aviation Accidents and Incidents Aviation Safety & Regulation Airbus Airbus A320 Airlines

False hijacking alert from wrong transponder code prompts multi-country fighter scramble for LOT Polish Airlines A320 to Tel Avi

A LOT Polish Airlines Airbus A320 from Warsaw to Tel Aviv was forced to divert to Burgas after an erroneous transponder squawk entered the internationally recognized 7500 “hijacking” code, triggering security responses. Turkish, Bulgarian and Israeli authorities scrambled fighter jets and later confirmed no threat, but the flight arrived with a heavy delay.

Discovered 2026-07-01T01:28:53.487604-07:00 | 2026-07-01T01:28:53.487604-07:00

Briefing

What Hype is tracking

The event shows how a single transponder input (the internationally recognized 7500 hijacking code) can rapidly activate cross-border emergency procedures—escalating from airborne monitoring to fighter-jet response.
It underscores the operational and network impact of false positives: the LOT flight was diverted to Burgas and ultimately continued to Israel with heavy delay.
It highlights the need for robust verification and incident confirmation processes among multiple national authorities to quickly differentiate technical faults from real security threats.

Reported By

Daily Sabah Simple Flying aero.de Aviation24 AeroTime