May 24, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 18, 1429

JERUSALEM, May 23: Israeli fighter jets scrambled to intercept an unidentified aircraft suspected to be hostile this week, only to find out that it carried none other than international Mideast peace envoy Tony Blair, a top military official said on Friday.

Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, was flying on a private plane from the World Economic Forum summit in Sinai, Egypt, to an investment conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Wednesday when his plane penetrated Israeli airspace and failed to respond to repeated control tower radio calls demanding it identify itself, the official said.

As is common practice in such a case, the Israeli air force scrambled two fighter jets to intercept the aircraft. They flew above Mr Blair’s plane and quickly established contact with the cockpit, whose pilot informed them of the famous traveller on board, the official added.

Mr Blair’s plane apparently had a technical malfunction and could not hear the Israeli control tower’s calls.—AP