Fact Checking the Arab Media

Lebanese and non-Lebanese news organizations quickly republished several of the tweets carried by IntelSky, highlighting that two F-16 fighters approached the civilian aircraft over one Greek island when the pilot failed to respond to the land radar calls. According to IntelSky's Twitter account, the Greek authorities were on alert following a relevant signal by the NATO air control center in Spain (CAOC Torrejón), to intercept a non-responsive civil aircraft that had taken off from Madrid and was bound for Beirut. The same account carried information indicating that there were reportedly several attempts to contact the aircraft but no response had been received over the radio, something that was particularly worrying. Thus, two F-16 fighters that were on standby took off from the coastal Souda region in Greece and approached the civilian aircraft approximately over Argolida, also in Greece. The account further carried footage showing an F16 fighter approaching the civilian aircraft.

IntelSky indicated that the pilot, Abed Al-Hout, son of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Middle East Airlines Mohammed Al-Hout, must have forgotten to turn the instruments to the correct frequency so he wasn’t answering any of the calls. The incident was noticed by residents of the Argos area, who notified the fire department that they heard strange sounds like explosions.

The Minister of Public Works and Transportation in the caretaker cabinet, Ali Hamiyyeh, released a statement indicating that after contacting the Head of Operations in the Middle East Airlines, Ahmad Mansour, the latter informed him that the cabin crew included two pilots and one co-pilot “who all possess the necessary technical skills to perform their job” and all three of them were onboard. The statement of the Lebanese minister further indicated that “the Greek surveillance authorities contacted the Lebanese aircraft twice as it entered the Greek zone. Shortly after that, two Greek jets approached the aircraft and contacted its crew to ask about a possible emergency. The answer was no, and the aircraft was thus allowed to proceed.”

In the days that followed its revelation, IntelSky’s Twitter account published an update indicating that the official Lebanese version was incorrect. The tweet indicated that, according to a detailed report published by the Lebanese daily L'Orient Le Jour on August 17, “the pilot did not hear [the Greek airforce] communications with him because he pressed the wrong wave-communication button, so the fighters were sent - said the spokesperson for the Greek Air Force, M. Sotirios.”

According to both Greek City Times and also to IntelSky’s Twitter account, the Greek Authorities indeed issued a “Renegade Alert” after receiving a relevant signal by the NATO air control center in Spain to intercept a non-responsive civil aircraft. The Greek website indicated that “it is thought that the pilot had forgotten to tune the instruments to the correct frequency, explaining why he could not answer any of the calls.”

Fact Check Assessment: True

There was obviously a human error since the pilot and his assistants failed to tune their radio to the right frequency, according to the Greek government and multiple news reports, which led to confusion and concern on the level of the aviation control authorities in Greek. Two fighter jets were evidently dispatched to intercept the non-responsive Lebanese aircraft that had failed to respond to the calls. This means that IntelSky’s initial information was correct.

In his statement, Minister of Transportation Hamiyeh failed to reveal the identity of the crew, which likely reflects a desire to protect the identity of the pilot, who is the son of the chairman of the board of directors of Middle East Airlines. He also failed to explain the reason why the Greek fighters thought that there might be an emergency onboard the Middle East Airlines aircraft; and his statement further failed to indicate that the two Greek jets were actually F16 fighters jets, indicating the seriousness of the violation of civil aviation rules which the MEA flight crew committed.