IAF Sukhois force Georgian Plane coming from Pakistan to land in Jaipur

Jaipur: Indian Air Force fighter jets on Friday forced a Georgian Antonov-12 cargo aircraft, which entered from an unuthorised air route from Pakistani side, to land at the Jaipur airport over violation of air space.

News agency ANI reported that the cargo plane entered the Indian air space around 70 kilometres north of an important air base in the Rann of Kutch, which is closed for civilian air traffic.

“The aircraft did not follow the authorized Air Traffic Services (ATS) route and was not responding to Radio calls from Indian controlling agencies. Since ATS routes in the area were closed due to the current geopolitical situation, and the aircraft entered Indian Air Space from an unscheduled point, the Air Defence interceptor on operational readiness was scrambled and vectored towards the unknown aircraft for investigation,” the government said in a statement.

The aircraft neither responded on international distress frequency nor to visual signals during interception.

However, when challenged, the aircraft responded and informed that it was a non-scheduled An-12 aircraft that had got airborne from Tbilisi (Georgia) for Delhi via Karachi. The aircraft was shadowed and forced to land here at 4.55 PM for necessary investigation.

The crew and pilots of the aircraft  were being questioned, Sources said.

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