MUMBAI - A US chartered military aircraft bound for Bangkok was ordered by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to land at Mumbai airport Sunday morning following confusion over its identification, an airport source said.
The chartered Boeing 767 aircraft with 205 US Marines aboard was ordered to land at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport at 7.52 a.m. when its call sign did not match with the sign available with the Mumbai Air Traffic Control (ATC).
Following this, the ATC alerted the IAF which ordered the aircraft to land in Mumbai.
Presently, the aircraft - which was on a flight from Fujairah (UAE) to Bangkok (Thailand) - is parked in a remote bay of the airport with security around it.
Officials of the IAF, Central Industrial Security Force and Mumbai customs are in the aircraft and IAF officials are questioning the pilot.
The IAF, along with the US authorities are presently co-ordinating with New Delhi to sort out the matter before the aircraft is allowed to leave.
The flight was reportedly carrying the US marines on a holiday to Bangkok.
The Marines or the IAF? In the air, my money’s on the IAF as they have some fancy toys and they have some crazy pilots. On the ground or the beach, I’ll bet on the Marines everytime. Plus the 767 isn’t armed.
i bet the soldiers would give anything to be on safe ground too. im suprised they were not allowed the option to go back where they came from till its resloved. would this happen if it was a military cargo place full of soldiers?
If the plane is in their airspace and the transponder doesn’t match the ATC info, you can bet that country has a right to investigate and clear it up. We would.
Marines, Meek (are you really an RN or is there some other source for that set of letters?), the proper term is Marines. Soldiers are Army personnel, whereas members of the US Marine Corps are known as Marines.
… would give anything to be on safe ground too.
Actually, I’m quite certain every last one of them would have much preferred to get on with his excursion to Thailand. Or maybe Cuba… (crossthread points, anyone?)
…back where they came from till its resloved [sic]…
Uh… No.
… would this happen if it was a military cargo place full of soldiers?
