Two Italian military jets intercepted a Maltese training aircraft this afternoon after it failed to respond to a number of communication requests from a control tower, according to reports in the Sicilian media.
The incident happened in the airspace over Comiso, according to Ragusa News.
The report said the Maltese Cessna aircraft had departed from Malta and lost contact with the control tower when it reached 4,000 feet over Sicily, as a result of which it failed to respond to a number of messages of communication made by the Italian authorities.
Two Eurofighter EF2000 jets from the Italian Military Mission were immediately dispatched from the military airport in Trapani-Birgi to analyse the situation before it intercepted the aircraft and guided it back to the airport.
No further details are available at this stage.