LDALL AIRCRAFT 2 LAST

The plane landed at Mumbai airport at 0752 hours and was
parked at a remote bay and all the passengers remained inside
till the inquiry was completed.

The US Embassy was arranging for visa documents of the
205 passengers on-board. "The US Embassy is arranging for
visa, immigration and staying facilities for all the
passengers," the MIAL spokesperson said.

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. PTI NCB
DDC


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