Air traffic control radar issued an automatic alert warning that two aircraft could come into dangerously close proximity to one another within the Nicosia FIR, involving a Turkish military transport aircraft and a passenger jet.
However, Cyprus’s Civil Aviation Department has since described the overall flight safety situation within the FIR as manageable, sources told philenews.
The alert concerned a Turkish military Airbus A400M with the call sign TUAF770 and a passenger Boeing 737-800 with the call sign TOM56T.
According to the information, the Turkish aircraft was not responding to calls from the Nicosia Area Control Centre and, having deviated from its planned flight route, began climbing towards flight level FL360. At the same time, the Boeing 737-800 was descending towards FL350, triggering the automatic warning in the air traffic control system.
Decades-old communication gap
Sources said the issue of Turkish aircraft movements is a longstanding, daily occurrence. Civil Aviation Department staff are fully familiar with managing such incidents, they explained, and take all necessary measures to ensure flight safety.
The core problem, according to the same sources, lies in the total absence of communication between Cyprus’s Civil Aviation Department and Turkish aircraft, Turkish air traffic control centres and Turkish aviation authorities more broadly, a situation they linked to Ankara’s non-recognition of the Republic of Cyprus.
That gap is compounded by a legal distinction: the Republic of Cyprus’s national airspace extends over its territory and up to 12 nautical miles from its coasts, while the Nicosia FIR is far broader, covering a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean where the Republic of Cyprus is responsible for providing air traffic services. On this basis, sources said, Turkish authorities have for decades interfered with Nicosia Area Control Centre communications with aircraft moving within the Nicosia FIR, particularly in areas where Ankara disputes the Republic of Cyprus’s jurisdiction and claims fall under its own.
The Turkish drones
The situation is also described as manageable regarding flights by Turkish unmanned aircraft, usually Bayraktar drones, according to the information, which take off from the “occupied” Lefkoniko or the “illegal” Tymbou (Ercan) airport. Flights by these drones intensify particularly during periods of heightened tension in the region, when a more frequent presence is recorded in Eastern Mediterranean airspace.
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