BREAKING NEWS : Military Plane violates Indian Airspace

I-G

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Crew of Russian intruder aircraft being questioned, military cargo found
20 Jun 2009, 1048 hrs IST, IANS


MUMBAI: Security agencies were engaged on Saturday in questioning the crew of a Russian-make cargo aircraft which was ordered to land in Mumbai late on Friday night after it violated Indian air space, according to an official.

There is no indication so far whether it was a genuine error on the part of the pilot or otherwise, the official said.

The civil cargo carrier, AN-124-100, was directed by the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) to change path and land at the airport here, which it complied with.

"Since the aircraft obeyed the ATC instructions and changed its path, there was no need for the IAF (Indian Air Force) to be directly involved in the matter. Contrary to speculation, the IAF did not provide any escort to the aircraft," an official spokesman for the ministry of defence said on Saturday morning.

The probe is being handled by a team of Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). However, no defence personnel are involved in the inquiry.

The aircraft is stationed in the parking bay of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) amid high security.

Though no official was willing to confirm, the aircraft is reported to be carrying a cargo of military trucks.

The cargo carrier, chartered to the US, was proceeding from a military base in Diego Garcia to Kandahar, and entered Indian air space illegally.

The Indian Air Force detected the violation when the alien aircraft was seen flying over north-west Gujarat skies.

The Mumbai Air Traffic Control and the IAF ordered it to divert to Mumbai and land here even as the security set-up was put in high gear.

It landed at the airport around 10.45 pm and was directed to the parking bay amid tight security.

Crew of Russian intruder aircraft being questioned, military cargo found - India - The Times of India
 

Singh

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Aircraft with US military goods forced to land

A cargo aircraft, allegedly carrying US military goods, was forced to land in Mumbai on Friday night after the Indian Air Force became suspicious that it was a military aircraft flying on a civilian code. The aircraft is Russian-made but was apparently leased to the US Air Force.

Travelling to Kandahar from Diego Garcia, a US military base, it had permission to fly over India as a civilian aircraft but the IAF found that, once in Afghan airspace, it would have its designation changed into one usually meant for military aircraft.

In Mumbai, an airport source said it has defence equipment on board. “This includes a motor,” he said.

The aircraft is an Antonov AN 124, one of the world’s largest cargo planes and often leased by various countries to carry bulky equipment. It belongs to the private Russian Volga Dnepr airline.

It had been flying on the same route, unchallenged, for two weeks. The IAF raised the sudden objection after it found that in Afghan airspace the aircraft would be given the call sign REACH 813, generally reserved for military aircraft. To fly over India, the aircraft had been granted a civilian flight code and designated VDA 4466.

Aircraft with US military goods forced to land
 

Singh

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Okay the situation is pretty much clear.

This is a private Russian company owned Russian made plane, hired by US armed forces for supplying cargo to and from American bases in Astan.

For the last couple of weeks ot flew over India, Pak with a civilian call sign but over Astan with a military call sign, this raised IAF's eyebrows and they alerted ATC.

When this craft entered the Indian airspace, the ATC made contact with pilot, and quizzed him about the difference in call signs. Upon not getting a coherent response, it was declared a violator of Indian airspace and askedto land at Mumbai airport, since the craft complied there was no need for fighter escorts.

After a thorough check of the cargo hold, after a demarche to the lapsing agencies will let the craft off.

Some positives.

IAF is keeping a close watch of the region. PAF is found wanting.

Some negatives.

IAF took two weeks to discover this.
 

A.V.

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NEW DELHI, June 20 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian-made cargo aircraft that flouted the Indian airspace late on Friday is currently awaiting permission for take-off at Mumbai airport, an airport spokesman said on Saturday.
The Indian Air Force forced an An-124 plane, en route from the U.S. military base in Diego Garcia to Afghanistan's Kandahar, to land on suspicions that it was a military plane flying on a civilian flight code. It landed at Mumbai airport at 10:40 p.m. local time (17:10 GMT) on Friday, according to an airport source.
The aircraft owned by a private Russian airline, Volga-Dnepr, was carrying U.S. military goods, the Indian Air Force (IAF) said.
IAF spokesman T.K. Singha said the airline had applied for permission to fly over India to the country's Department of Civil Aviation, not to the Defense Ministry.
"For aircraft carrying military cargos there is a separate transit procedure, and the airline could not but know it," Singha told RIA Novosti.
The Antonov An-124 aircraft can carry cargos weighing up to 150 metric tons and is one of the world's largest cargo planes.
Talks between Russia and Ukraine are currently underway to resume its production at the Aviastar-SP plant in Ulyanovsk, a Russian city on the Volga.

Intruder military plane awaits permission to leave India | Top Russian news and analysis online | 'RIA Novosti' newswire
 

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If it had applied for permission from the Civil aviation authority, why did it not have the code to fly over Indian airspace?
Why didnt the ATC know that a plane was coming in if the DGCA new about it?
 

A.V.

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it did have permission to fly over indian air-space but 2 different types of permissions are needed one for civil aviation and one for military aviation
the problem was it was flying with a civil aviation permission but the IAF suspected it to be involved in military transport so they took the step up and intercepted the flight

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," ----- as said by sources
 

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Yes, Today morning itself I have seen gigantic An-124 of While colour parked on Mumbai Airport from my Gym which gives bird eye view of entire Mumbai Airport.

I didn't find anything strange with this particuler incidence consisiting of Airspace violation, since even couple of days ago, AIR INDIA's Flight also strayed inside Pakistani airspace for Five minutes, as it was directed by Amritser Airport to hover in the sky till it get clearance for landing. Pakistani Ground based radar controllers were very quick to pick it on their radars. More importantly, it was piloted by a women pilot.
 

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Although, can anyone tell me what can be done by concerned authorities in case of violation of Indian Airspace by foriegn aircraft and pilot of that aircraft refuse to heed any call from ATC to land?
 

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Although, can anyone tell me what can be done by concerned authorities in case of violation of Indian Airspace by foriegn aircraft and pilot of that aircraft refuse to heed any call from ATC to land?
I guess the only option in such a case would be to either -

  • Warn the fellow and let him go in case he is civilian (though I doubt this even happening)
  • Scramble fighters to force him to land
  • In case of hostiles there may be shooting orders issues to shoot him down (in case of what happened in the Atlantique incident)

Correct me if I'm wrong on this...
 

EnlightenedMonk

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Yes, Today morning itself I have seen gigantic An-124 of While colour parked on Mumbai Airport from my Gym which gives bird eye view of entire Mumbai Airport.
You live in Kalina, do you ??? Cool !!!
 

thakur_ritesh

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zoom, there will be a fighter jet escort and if even then the concerned pilot does not respond then the last option is to shoot down the plane. i am sure you would recall this incident where the paf plane intruded into indian sirspace and was shot down

KARACHI, Pakistan, January 6, 2002: Indian fighter planes shot down a Pakistani surveillance aircraft today. Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz said 16 servicemen were killed.

Both nations claimed the plane was shot down in their territory.

The French-built Atlantic-I aircraft was on a training mission when it was shot down near a small coastal town, Aziz said. "Pakistan reserves the right to make an appropriate response in self-defense," he said.

Aziz said wreckage of the aircraft was found a mile inside Pakistani territory.

India, however, said the aircraft was shot down after intruding into Indian airspace and failing to respond to warnings.
 

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Ritesh and EM, I am in agreement with both of you. But as far as what I know, there is no fighter jets based in Mumbai, not even SAMs are deployed to take on hostile target. Even nearest Airforce base is Pune, which housed MKI.

I know about the protocols that are being followed to deal with airspace violation, but the question that is lurking in mind is about our ability to rapidly take on hostile aerial object the moment it enterned our airspace. Since SAM's aren't deployed anywhere in Mumbai, hence even if we identify hostile nature of that aircraft and proceeded further to force land it by scrambling MKIs from Pune, then only it will take atleast Ten minutes for MKI to get it rid of the same.

Ten Minutes is too much to force land, because if hostile aircraft has intentions of slaming the aircraft with any Business hub or important installation in Mumbai including Tromby Oil refineries and Naval assets and Mazgaon dock, then I don't think we have the ability to shot it down unless some Fighter jets are particulerly based in Mumbai.
 

EnlightenedMonk

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Ritesh and EM, I am in agreement with both of you. But as far as what I know, there is no fighter jets based in Mumbai, not even SAMs are deployed to take on hostile target. Even nearest Airforce base is Pune, which housed MKI.

I know about the protocols that are being followed to deal with airspace violation, but the question that is lurking in mind is about our ability to rapidly take on hostile aerial object the moment it enterned our airspace. Since SAM's aren't deployed anywhere in Mumbai, hence even if we identify hostile nature of that aircraft and proceeded further to force land it by scrambling MKIs from Pune, then only it will take atleast Ten minutes for MKI to get it rid of the same.

Ten Minutes is too much to force land, because if hostile aircraft has intentions of slaming the aircraft with any Business hub or important installation in Mumbai including Tromby Oil refineries and Naval assets and Mazgaon dock, then I don't think we have the ability to shot it down unless some Fighter jets are particulerly based in Mumbai.
The closest airbases to Mumbai are Pune and Jamnagar... so, in a sense Mumbai is a soft and easy target... I remember during the hostilities between India and Pakistan in 2001 post the Parliament attacks, they had placed some SAM stations on Powai Hill to protect Mumbai city in case of hostile attacks, but they seem to be gone now...
 

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Ritesh and EM, I am in agreement with both of you. But as far as what I know, there is no fighter jets based in Mumbai, not even SAMs are deployed to take on hostile target. Even nearest Airforce base is Pune, which housed MKI.
Location of SAM battery installations is secret.We will never know if there are any SAMs located nearby Mumbai. But, once the hostile nature of the plane is confirmed, I'm sure SAMs will be activated and gunned at the plane.
 

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Location of SAM battery installations is secret.We will never know if there are any SAMs located nearby Mumbai. But, once the hostile nature of the plane is confirmed, I'm sure SAMs will be activated and gunned at the plane.
Certainly we cannot allow use of SAM's even in worst case scenario, since Mumbai has a high density of Population living in very small patch of land, it is very difficult to shot down hostile target with SAM, because falling debris is equally dangarous for people living around that region. Fighter jets are the only answer for it, since atleast they can analyze the situation and accordingly shot down the target on mans land.
 

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Intruder US-chartered aircraft allowed to leave Mumbai

Intruder US-chartered aircraft allowed to leave Mumbai

20 Jun 2009, 1650 hrs IST, IANS
MUMBAI: The intruder US-chartered Russian-make aircraft, AN-124-100, which was ordered to land in Mumbai late Friday after it violated Indian air
space, was cleared by the intelligence and security agencies and given the green signal to leave Saturday afternoon, airport sources said.

The aircraft was to proceed on its journey around 4.30 p.m. Saturday, according to the sources.

On a flight from Diego Garcia, a US military base in the Indian Ocean, to Kandahar in Afghanistan, the aircraft chartered by the US Air Force had strayed into Indian airspace over Gujarat.

The civil cargo carrier was directed by the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) to change path and land at the airport here, which it complied with

Top civilian, intelligence and security agencies questioned the six crew-members of the aircraft.

However, the details of the outcome of the probe were kept under wraps. There is no indication whether the airspace violation was a genuine error on the part of the pilot or otherwise.

Since landing FRiday night around 10.45 p.m., the aircraft was stationed in the parking bay of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA) amid high security.

It was provided all necessary ground services and reported to be carrying a cargo of military trucks and some arms and ammunition, though no official was willing to confirm.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) had detected the violation when the alien aircraft was seen flying over north-west Gujarat skies without appropriate clearances.

The Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC) and the IAF ordered it to divert to Mumbai and land here while the security set-up was put in high gear.

"Since the aircraft obeyed the ATC instructions and changed its path, there was no need for the IAF to be directly involved in the matter. Contrary to speculation, the IAF did not provide any escort to the aircraft which landed in Mumbai," a defence ministry official told media.
 

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