near the United States Ambassador’s residence and the headquarters of BosNewsLife News Agency Saturday September 3, threatening homes and causing residents to flee.
"He was doing all kinds of dangerous things, including a free fall, a death spiral, and picking up just a few meters from the roof of houses. There was heavy black and brown smoke from the plane and when it was turning, flames could be seen," said BosNewsLife co-founder and British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reporter Agnes R. Bos.
"It was as if the pilot tried to fly right into homes of District Two including the building where BosNewsLife News Center is located, and not far from the residence of US Ambassador George H. Walker," added her husband, BosNewsLife founder Stefan J. Bos, who also works for the Voice of America (VOA) and other networks.
FLEEING RESIDENTS
Bos explained that he and his wife fled the BosNewsLife News Center briefly Saturday, September 3, "as we were not sure where the pilot intended to crash." Agnes R. Bos, was among those frantically calling police with a mobile phone.
"After her call, police apparently managed to reach the air tower and the small plane later left the airspace above District Two," apparently from a nearby airfield, Bos said.
Budapest Police refused to say whether the pilot had been arrested. "You have to call back Monday, we don’t know anything now," a police operator told BosNewsLife. The press spokesperson refused to answer the phone.
"You wonder how it is possible that such pilots are allowed to fly here at a time when people, including American diplomats living in this district, recall the September 11 attacks. What would have happened if this was a terrorist?" Bos said.
NATO CRITICISM
Hungary, which joined NATO in 1999, has been pressured by the defense alliance to improve its air warning and defense system following the September 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, as they involved planes flying into several buildings.
Earlier this year Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany revealed that in February a former Hungarian Air Force pilot managed to fly "undetected" in a small airplane from the Serbian border, over Hungary’s only nuclear power station Paks to Central Hungary.
Critics said Gyurcsany had published a "state secret" and that it could encourage terrorism. The prime minister stressed he wanted to point out that Hungary urgently needs adequate radars.
Experts estimate Hungary has currently 130 ailing military radars from the era when the country was part of the Communist Warsaw Pact. This already lead to troubles in the 1990’s when Serbian fighter jets violated Hungarian airspace on several occasions during the Balkan wars with the military unable to respond in time, while a rocket was fired on a Hungarian village, but causing no injuries.
