India clears US marine plane grounded for air space violation
Mumbai: India cleared the release of a chartered North American
aircraft carrying US marines on Sunday afternoon. The chartered Boeing 767, carrying
commandos of the US 205 Marine Unit, was made to land at Mumbai’s Chatrapati Shivaji
international airport for violating Indian airspace. Earlier in the day, US
Embassy officials were working with the Ministry of External Affairs, the Director
General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Indian Air Force (IAF) to carry out the
necessary paper work to clear the release of the plane. The pilot of the aircraft
failed to ascertain the correct AOR signal when asked for it by the air traffic
controller (ATC). The aircraft was asked to land after its call sign was not registered
The aircraft was travelling from Fujairah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to
Bangkok. A call sign is a signal code that all foreign military aircraft crossing
Indian airspace use to communicate with the Indian Air Force. In June, a Russian
AN-132 aircraft, hired by the NATO forces working in Afghanistan was forced to
land in Mumbai airport on similar circumstances.
