*Sources: DTN News / Int'l Media
(NSI News Source Info) MUMBAI, India - June 21, 2009: In a major violation of Indian airspace, a Russian aircraft hired by the US military which was overflying India on Friday evening was instructed by the defence ministry to change its flight path mid-way and head for Mumbai airport.
The Ukrainian-make AN-124 aircraft, owned by Russian private airline Volga-Dnepr, "would be allowed to get airborne again today" after the External Affairs Ministry gives the Air Operations Routing (AOR) authority to fly over Indian airspace, said IAF spokesperson Wg Cdr T K Singh on Saturday.
The Antonov 124, which intelligence sources said had 18 Russians on board, was on its way from Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean — where the US has a base — to Kandahar in south Afghanistan when it was intercepted by Mumbai ATF on orders from the defence ministry. The defence ministry’s public relations official, Captain M Nambiar, confirmed that a foreign aircraft was instructed to divert to Mumbai airport.
"There has been a violation of our airspace by a civilian aircraft," he said. However, he denied that any IAF aircraft had escorted the US aircraft even as sources maintained that two IAF jets had indeed escorted the aircraft to Mumbai airport.
"An aircraft belonging to the US defence landed in Mumbai airport at 10.35 pm," said M G Junghare, general manager of Mumbai airport. The Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd (MIAL) spokesperson also confirmed the development, saying the aircraft was temporarily parked near runway 14.
According to the sources, the aircraft while seeking permission from the defence ministry to fly over Indian airspace had identified itself as a civil aircraft doing a non-scheduled (charter) operation.
All foreign aircraft doing non-scheduled or defence flights are required to submit their flight plans to obtain permission from Indian authorities to overfly Indian airspace. "This aircraft had asked for the status of a non-scheduled aircraft and it flew over Indian flight information region as such.
But to enter Pakistani airspace, it identified itself as a defence aircraft. It was still in Indian territory when this happened. The ambiguous status of the aircraft forced the defence ministry to issue orders to divert it to Mumbai," said the source.
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