Italian Air Force Typhoons react to ‘suspected bomb threat’
February 25, 2025
Flight AA292 was over the Caspian Sea when authorities received a request from American Airlines for security checks related to a ‘suspected bomb threat’ on board the aircraft. Air Traffic Control turned the aircraft back towards Rome.
Shortly after 1600 PM the NATO CAOC (Combined Air Operations Centre) at Torrejón, Spain, (via the 11th Integrated Air and Missile Defense Group (DAMI) at Poggio Renatico) ordered a QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) ‘A-Scramble’ by two Eurofighter F-2000A Typhoons from Grosseto Air Base, the home of the 4° Stormo (4th Wing).
Italy’s Servizio Sorveglianza Spazio Aereo (Air Space Surveillance Service) maintains QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) cells at Gioia del Colle, Trapani and Grosseto, and at Istrana, where Typhoon QRA was mounted by aircraft deployed from the other bases from February 2017 – even before it had its own F-2000As assigned in early 2020.
The Aeronautica Militare Italiana (Italian Air Force) units providing QRA aircraft and crews consist of the 4° Stormo at Grosseto (9° Gruppo and 20° Gruppo – the Typhoon OCU), the 36° Stormo at Gioia del Colle (10° and 12° Gruppi), the 37° Stormo, at Trapani (18° Gruppo) and the 51° Stormo at Istrana (132° Gruppo). From 1 September 2016, a Typhoon QRA deployment was mounted at Cameri (in northwestern Italy) to provide QRA cover for northern Italy, before Istrana’s QRA facility stood up. More recently, the F-35As of 32° Stormo (13° Gruppo) at Amendola Air Base have undertaken QRA duties, and the F-35s at Ghedi Air Base in Lombardy are expected to follow suit.
Italy was the first operator to put the Typhoon on QRA duty in December 2005, with the 4º Stormo’s IX Gruppo.
Eurofighter Typhoons assigned to QRA duties operate in a standard peacetime QRA configuration, carrying short range, IR-homing IRIS-T and beyond visual range, active radar homing AIM-120 AMRAAM Air-to-Air Missiles, as well as underwing drop tanks.
As the B787 approached Italian airspace, it was intercepted by two Eurofighter Typhoon jets, which identified it and then escorted it to Fiumicino ‘Leonardo Da Vinci’ airport, west of Rome. The QRA fighters have to ensure that the target aircraft does not deviate from its intended route and must be ready to intervene if it flies towards a large city or a sensitive potential terrorist target. One aircraft will usually ‘stand off’, while the other will approach much closer, taking position where it cannot be seen from onboard the target aircraft.
In the UK, airliners intercepted by QRA Typhoons are typically escorted to Stansted, where suitable security and emergency response units are available to handle any threat, and where remote parking stands are available to ‘isolate’ a hijacked aircraft. It is unclear as to whether Italy uses Fiumicino in the same way, or whether threat assessment permitted a more ‘normal’ destination, where passengers could be rebooked with minimum inconvenience. Fiumcino is served by American Airlines and is connected to both New York and Delhi.
