19 October 2009
MUMBAI: An American aircraft carrying 205 US Marines was forced to land at Mumbai airport on Sunday morning for allegedly violating Indian airspace. The chartered North American Airlines Boeing 767 was on its way to Bangkok from Fujairah in the UAE.
The plane was allowed to head for its destination late on Sunday night after defence-related clearance issues were sorted out, TV reports said. The flight is likely to resume its journey on Monday, airport officials said.
M G Jhungare, GM of Mumbai Air Traffic Control, told TOI, ``The aircraft, with military personnel on board, was passing over Mumbai. While civilian aircraft take permission from the Director General of Civil Aviation for using Indian airspace, military planes or those carrying ammunition must take permission from the defence ministry. This one didn't have the permission. We asked the pilot to land in Mumbai on the instructions of defence ministry officials.''
IAF spokesperson Wing Commander T K Singha told news agencies in Delhi that the transport aircraft had civilian clearance from the DGCA but it was required to obtain Air Operation Routing clearance (AOR), needed for a military aircraft as it was carrying military personnel.
The aircraft landed in Mumbai at 7.52am and was parked at the end of runway 322. A Mumbai International Airport Ltd spokesperson said, ``The pilot was asked to pay the navigation charges by ATC. He furnished his credit card, but officials refused to accept it. Finally, the US embassy agreed to pay the charges.''
Airport officials said the visa and immigration of the crew and passengers was cleared and they were sent to a five-star hotel near the airport.
A spokesperson of the US Consulate in Mumbai said, ``We are pleased that we have resolved the procedural matter expeditiously and appreciate the cooperation of Indian authorities. The crew and the passengers will stay in Mumbai because they need rest.''
This is the fourth case of a foreign aircraft violating Indian airspace since June this year. On June 20, a Ukrainian-made military cargo aircraft AN-124, operated by a Russian private airline and chartered by US defence forces for flying out military equipment from its base in Diego Garcia to Kandahar, had entered Indian airspace illegally. The IAF had ordered it to land in Mumbai as the aircraft didn't have AOR clearance. It was detained for 24 hours and asked to fly out only after it obtained the necessary clearance.
On August 27, the IAF radar in Punjab picked up an Air France aircraft (A-343) flying from Paris to Bangkok, as it didn't flash a proper identity. IAF scrambled MIG-29 figher jets from Punjab to intercept the aircraft.
In the first week of September, a China-bound cargo plane of the UAE Air Force was detained and its crew were questioned after customs officials found arms and ammunition on board the aircraft. The plane had made a scheduled transit landing at Kolkata airport. The C-130 plane was on its way to Hanyang in China from Abu Dhabi and had landed at the airport to refuel.
The crew members hadn't informed in the routine declaration submitted to authorities that arms and ammunition were in the plane. After diplomatic interference, UAE requested the government to release the aircraft and it was allowed to leave after a detention of five days.
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