Former British Prime Minister almost shot down by Israeli airforce

Tony Blair on his airplane

(imemc/AP) -- Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain and the Envoy for the Quartet for Mideast Peace had a 'near-miss' on Friday when Israeli fighter jets mistook his plane for an 'enemy aircraft', and were within seconds of shooting him down.

Two fighter jets were sent in hot pursuit of Blair's aircraft after they monitored the plane taking off from the Sinai (Israeli-occupied Syrian territory) en route to Israel. Since no Syrian planes ever fly to Israel, and Israel is control of the airspace, the Israeli airforce assumed it was an attack plane, and sent fighter jets to intercept it. The British leader's staff had informed Israel of the flight plans, but according to the Israeli newspaper Maariv, due to a “technical error” the information was miscommunicated.

According to the Israeli airforce, they saw a suspicious aircraft entering Israeli airspace and tried to make contact. When they received no response, they sent out the fighter jets. The jets took a position above the British leader's aircraft, so that the pilot could see them and know that he was a target.

The “technical error” in not receiving Blair's pilot's communications was blamed on a new communications infrastructure that the Israeli airforce has put in place in recent months to identify all suspicious aircraft and be able to mobilize quickly to shoot them down.

Blair was not told of the incident while he was on the plane, and only received word about how close he had come to death when he landed, and the media asked him about it.