Mumbai: A US chartered military aircraft bound for Bangkok was ordered by the Indian Air Force (IAF) to land at Mumbai airport on 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 0752 hours IST 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 adequate security.
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.
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