Two passenger jets return during Agni missile test

Tiruchirappalli: Two jet aircrafts had to return to the South-east Asian cities from where they took off while flying over Indian airspace at the time of the Agni missile test yesterday with one incident threatening a diplomatic spat.
An Air India Express flight bound for Chennai via Tiruchirappalli returned to Singapore following the missile test.
In the second incident, the Garuda Indonesia jet, full of Muslim pilgrims en route to Saudi Arabia, had reached Indian airspace when the missile streaked across the sky forcing the plane to turn around, AFP reported from Jakarta.
Air India Express's Singapore-Tiruchirappalli-Chennai flight landed here at 6.30 pm yesterday, over seven hours behind schedule, officials said.
The flight was on its way here when defence officials advised the pilot to take a diversion for safety reasons in view of the Agni test.
The pilot then contacted the air traffic authorities in Colombo, the nearest airport, but was refused permission to land.
Garuda's operations diector Ari Sapari was quoted as saying by the Kompas newspaper that there was no prior information about the test.
13/04/07 PTI/The Hindu

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Categories: Air India Express Apr 2007, Airports Apr 2007, Foreign Apr 2007, Safety Apr 2007