Sometimes a single silent plane is enough to put an entire air defence on its feet. On 13 June, Hungary scrambled two Gripen fighter jets to intercept an Israeli passenger plane - an Airbus A321 operated by "Arkia", flying from Tel Aviv to Prague. The reason: the aircraft had entered Hungarian airspace without establishing contact with air traffic control.

Silence in the air, at a time when the region is tense, automatically triggers NATO security protocols. Once the fighters made contact, the passenger plane continued normally, without incident. The airline said the crew had followed the flight plan and that there had been no security threat, but it also announced an internal investigation - because when two fighter jets intercept you in mid-air, even a misunderstanding becomes a serious matter.

The detail that makes this more than routine is the location - the Balkans' "neighbourhood". Hungary is a country with which the region shares borders and skies, and when fighter jets go up there over an Israeli aircraft, it is a reminder of how easily tension from the Middle East reaches the European backyard. One unanswered radio signal, and suddenly we are one step from an incident of international scale.

In the end it all ended peacefully, and that is exactly why it is worth noting. Because security in the air works as long as everyone follows the rules - and a single silence, a single technical error or a single misunderstanding is enough for the system to jump to its highest alert. The question left hanging: how often do such "misunderstandings" pass unnoticed, and what happens on the day the answer does not come in time?