US plane made to land in Mumbai, gets IAF clearance later

An American chartered aircraft with 205 passengers, including US marines, was made to land at Mumbai airport today for entering Indian airspace without mandatory clearance but was later given the nod by the IAF to fly out.

After inquiry, the IAF has given clearance for the plane to fly out and the DGCA will decide when it will take off, IAF spokesperson Wing Commander TK Singha said.

The US military chartered Boeing 767 plane, belonging to North American Airlines, was on way from Fujiriah in the UAE to Utapao in Bangkok. It landed at Mumbai airport at 7.52am and was parked at a remote bay.

"A US aircraft with 205 passengers, including its crew and US troops on board, was made to land in Mumbai while flying over Indian airspace as there was some confusion about its call sign," a Mumbai airport official said.

Singha told PTI in New Delhi that the transport aircraft had "civilian clearance from directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA) to fly over Indian airspace.

"However, it was carrying military personnel, for which the aircraft should have obtained Air Operation Routing clearance (AOR), needed for a military aircraft," he said.

Once the aircraft entered Indian air space, the IAF ordered the it through radio communication to land in Mumbai, to which it complied with, he said.

Earlier, a US embassy spokesperson termed the issue as a "routine matter" and said "we are in touch with relevant officials to resolve" it. This is the fourth incident of a foreign aircraft violating rules relating to obtaining of clearance to fly over Indian airspace or other disputes since June this year.

On June 20, a Ukrainian-made military cargo aircraft AN-124, operated by a Russian private airline Volga-Dnepr and chartered by US defence forces for flying out military equipment from its base in Diego Garcia island to Kandahar in Afghanistan, was caught in a similar situation.

The IAF had ordered it to land in Mumbai as the aircraft did not have AOR clearance. It was detained for 24 hours and was asked to fly out after it obtained necessary clearance.

On August 27 this year, the IAF radar in Punjab had picked up an Air France aircraft (A-343) flying from Paris to Bangkok, as it did not have a proper identity.

The IAF scrambled MIG-29 fighter jets to intercept it and it was asked to identify whether it was a friend or a foe.

In the first week of September, a China-bound cargo plane of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force was detained and its ten crew members including the pilot were questioned after customs officials found arms and ammunition on board the aircraft. The plane had made a scheduled transit landing at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose airport, Kolkata.

The crew members had not informed in the routine declaration submitted to authorities that arms and ammunition were in the plane, which, however, had the required civil and military clearance for transit through Kolkata.