DTN News: U.A.E. Plane Arms-Laden Released From India

DTN News: U.A.E. Plane Arms-Laden Released From India *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) KOLKATA, India - September 11, 2009: The United Arab Emirates Air Force C-130 J Super Hercules aircraft, which had been held up at the Kolkata airport since Sunday evening following the discovery of arms, ammunition and explosives in its cargo, finally took off for Xiangyang in China at 9.24 am on Thursday. A United Arab Emirates Air Force C-130 transport aircraft is seen at the international airport in Kolkata. Indian authorities have detained a United Arab Emirates airforce plane that landed in Kolkata on its way to China after discovering arms and explosives on board, airport officials said.

The nine crew members left by the flight as well. Though there were speculations on whether the plane would be escorted back to Sunday's entry point into Indian airspace over the Arabian Sea, the defence ministry and Indian Air Force allowed it to take its original path.

The plane reached Xiangyang around noon after flying over Dhaka, Chittagong and Kunming. The plane had been seized by Customs authorities on Sunday night as the documentation submitted prior to its arrival did not disclose the cargo.

The technical halt for refuelling and giving the crew rest was originally scheduled to last 13 hours, but stretched to 88 hours.

Though crew members had been cleared by the immigration department on Tuesday and the ministry of external affairs (MEA) and ministry of defence (MoD) indicated they would allow the aircraft to proceed the day after, the flight was held up due to delay in applying for Air Defence/AOR clearance by the UAE government.

The crew had gone down to the airport on Wednesday afternoon, expecting a clearance to take off, but had to return to the hotel after a four-hour wait. They heaved a sigh of relief when the permissions arrived late on Wednesday.

It was learnt that the UAE government has admitted to a mistake in the documentation and apologized for failing to report the weapons. Since UAE has friendly relations with India, the government considered the matter sympathetically to avoid a diplomatic row.

The matter could have been resolved earlier had conventional weapons been on board. But the presence of three boxes, marked "combat missiles", led to the logjam. Sleuths suspected that deadly US-made Harpoon missiles were being channelized to China from UAE and Egypt.

If that suspicion were proved true, the unauthorized proliferation could lead to regional imbalances and trigger a crisis, felt experts.

"The presence of missiles on board made the situation grave. Already, there are reports of Pakistan having modified Harpoon missiles to strike land targets in India," an analyst pointed out.