Kuwait Airways aircraft flies over no-fly zone in Delhi

A Kuwait Airways aircraft today deviated from its flight path after take-off from the IGI Airport here and moved towards the no-fly zone approaching the Prime Minister’s house, triggering a security scare close on the heels of threats of terror attacks to airports across the country.

After the incident, authorities advised all foreign airlines about strict adherence to avoid no-fly zone and depute pilots well versed in English as the pilot of the Kuwaiti airliner was a Mongolian national who was not well equipped with the language, official sources said. Official sources said the aircraft, which took off at 6.15 a.m, turned left instead of right which was its scheduled flight path. Though the pilot soon corrected the course following warnings by the air traffic control, the plane, being an Airbus, remained within the no-fly zone for at least six minutes, they said. “The chapter is closed,” the sources said, adding the airline had tendered an apology for the “inadvertent mistake”. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation would inquire into the matter.

The pilot was a Mongolian national who was not well-versed with English language, said the sources. This is the second such instance of an aircraft entering the no-fly zone in the past few months. The diversion of the Kuwait Airlines flight caused scare among security agencies as it followed a number of recent warnings received by aviation and security agencies about possible terror attacks on vital installations including airports as well as threats of hijack of planes bound for the US or Europe. The DGCA had only yesterday sent an urgent advisory to put all airports in the country on high alert following a warning from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that flights from the country to the United States or Europe could be the targets of terrorists. The FBI alert came days after an anonymous letter in Tiruchirapalli airport recently that warned of terror attacks on airports in south India.

The FBI had received an e-mail alert from an internet centre in Chennai that a flight emanating from India, bound for either Europe or the US, might be hijacked. The FBI asked Indian authorities for a thorough profiling of passengers bound for the US besides increased baggage and personal checks and extra apron (when the plane is on tarmac) security.

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