Georgian Antonov trespassing into Indian territory from Pak released after security clearance

A Georgian heavy cargo plane Antonov AN-12 which entered the Indian air space by an unauthorised route from Pakistan, was released following security clearance as it was not a serious violation, Rajasthan Police said on Friday.

Jaipur Additional Commissioner of Police, Laxman Gaur, said that the plane was forced by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to land at Jaipur airport due to security reasons.

"It was a minor route violation, plane was made to land in Jaipur due to security concerns. It was not a serious violation, it is been released," Gaur told reporters.

Its crew was questioned by the authorities concerned on the ground, senior government sources told ANI.

The aircraft carrying spares entered the air space into North Gujarat Sector at 3:15 pm. At the time of being intercepted, the plane was flying at 27,000 feet, an official statement said.

There was a high alert on the air space in both India and Pakistan after the Balakot aerial strikes by the Indian Air Force in March.

Not flying on the authorized Air Traffic Services (ATS) route, the Georgian aircraft was forced to land at Jaipur air base at 4:55 pm after it failed to respond to radio calls from Indian controlling agencies.

The AN-12 entered the Indian air space around 70 km north of an important air base in the Rann of Kutch from the air space which is closed for civilian air traffic, government sources said.

When challenged, the aircraft responded and informed that it was a non-scheduled An-12 aircraft that was airborne from Tbilisi (Georgia) for Delhi via Karachi.

Sources said as soon as the air force bases detected the aircraft on their radars, they activated two air defence fighters SU-30MKI there.

"The Georgian aircraft was earlier not responding but started descending 60 km near Jaipur and landed," they said.