Jet Airways B773 over Germany on Mar 13th 2014, loss of communication

A Jet Airways Boeing 777-300, registration VT-JEG performing flight 9W-117 from London Heathrow,EN (UK) to Mumbai (India), was enroute at FL330 over Netherlands being handed off to Germany near Münster (Germany), when Maastricht Upper Area Control informed Germany's DFS at 23:01L (22:01Z) that voice communication with the aircraft had been lost. Germany's DFS contacted Germany's Luftwaffe at 22:05Z, however, no fighter aircraft were dispatched to intercept the aircraft because of positive radar contact and the aircraft following its planned flight track and remaining within clearance. About 22 minutes later radio contact was re-established and the aircraft continued to Mumbai for a safe landing without further incident.

Germany's DFS confirmed they were notified by Maastricht Upper Area Control, serving the upper airspace of 4 countries, at 22:01Z that radio contact with 9W-117 had been lost, DFS notified Luftwaffe at 22:05Z. They did not report/complain to India's DGCA. The incident was handled according to standard operating procedures, there was no panic.

No fighter aircraft were dispatched as there was positive radar contact, the flight continued to track the planned flight trajectory and remained within clearances.

Germany's BFU stated, they have not received any report of this occurrence until noon today (Apr 10th 2014).

So far The Aviation Herald has not received statements from Eurocontrol (Maastricht Upper Area Control) and Jet Airways.

The "Indian Express" reported under the headline "Jet flight ‘vanished’ for 30 mins over Germany" (with almost all media in India mirroring that report) that Germany's DFS reported the aircraft missing and panicked over total loss of contact for 30 minutes assuming a scenario like MH-370, see Crash: Malaysia B772 over Gulf of Thailand on Mar 8th 2014, aircraft missing, data indicate flight MH-370 ended west of Australia, that had happened just 5 days earlier. DFS subsequently is reported to have complained to India's DGCA. The Indian Express then quotes Jet Airways explaining the incident that both pilots took off their headphones but forgot to adjust the volume of the cockpit loudspeakers resulting in a loss of radio communication.

Other media in India report that the pilots were de-rostered for two weeks pending the investigation by India's DGCA into the occurrence.