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A Boeing 777 was carrying passengers on India's Jet Airways from Mumbai to London this week when the pilots lost contact with air traffic controllers based in Cologne Germany. With a suddenly out-of-reach jet cruising through its airspace, Germany quickly hustled Typhoon fighter jets to intercept the airliner, as you can see in this video from the Facebook page CirrusPilot.

It's pretty amazing footage, which was captured by a British Airways flight in the neighborhood. The 777 streaks across the sky solo. First one Typhoon and then a second pull up alongside the plane to make sure all is well.

This plane mishap story has a happy ending. The Typhoons helped the airliner reestablish communications with the ground, and the 777 proceeded to a safe landing in London. Jet Airways says it's investigating the cause of the communication failure.

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Andrew Moseman
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Andrew's from Nebraska. His work has also appeared in Discover, The Awl, Scientific American, Mental Floss, Playboy, and elsewhere. He lives in Brooklyn with two cats and a snake.