Enlarge image
A C-17 during an older NATO exercise with parachutists (archive image from 2011)
Photo: ALESSANDRO GAROFALO / REUTERS
According to the Defense Ministry in Vienna, a NATO Boeing C-17 "massively" violated Austrian airspace.
The machine therefore flew over the Attersee near Salzburg on Friday at an altitude of 1000 meters instead of the prescribed altitude of around 10,000 meters.
A spokesman for the ministry said the plane behaved "like a wrong-way driver on a motorway" and put aviation at massive risk.
Two Austrian Eurofighters escorted the transport aircraft from the airspace to Hungary, where the C-17 fleet of the western military alliance NATO is stationed.
Such a serious airspace violation has not occurred in Austria in the past 20 years, said the spokesman.
Austria is not itself a member of NATO, but works in a special partnership with the military alliance.
mrc / dpa
