Fighter jet launched after plane enters Olympic no-fly zone

Britain scrambled a Royal Air Force Typhoon jet Wednesday after a commercial airliner entered restricted airspace put in place for the London Olympics, the Ministry of Defence said.

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The RAF jet was launched after air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane.

However, contact was soon re-established with the jet and the Typhoon was called back to base.

A Ministry of Defence spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that 1 Typhoon launched shortly before 11:30 am today (Wednesday). This was in response to a commercial aircraft that was out of communication with air traffic control services. Communications were quickly restored; no further action was required."

Britain has mounted its biggest peacetime security operation to guard the Olympics, which officially open on Friday.u00a0