American cargo plane forced to land at Mumbai airport

Mumbai, July 31 (UNI) A cargo plane, belonging to an American company, was forced to landed at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Aiprort (CSIA) here early this morning for illegally entering the Indian airspace.

The cargo plane, a jumbo jet (flight number 8206 GTI) owned by Atlas Cargo Company and bearing registration number 5/2, was flying from Nairobi, a South African country, to Hong Kong when it illegally entered into the Indian airspace.

The Delhi Air Control Room personnel noticed the plane on radar and asked for its identification code. To which, the plane's crew member said it belonged to the 'US Army'. When asked whether they had taken prior permission to fly over the Indian airspace, the crew member replied ''it was a civilian plane'', the Airport Police said here today.

Getting suspicious of its movement, the Delhi Control Room personnel alerted their counterparts here and directed them to forcefully land the flight at the Mumbai airport. Thus, the cargo plane was landed at the airport at 0310 hrs.

The plane, which was empty, had onboard four crew members who are now being questioned for giving an incorrect identity code to the Delhi Airport Control Room personnel. The Airport Authority of India (AAI) officials are carrying out further investigations, police added.

UNI ST MQA VP1245