Chartered plane forced to land after violating Indian airspace

A chartered flight from Diego Garcia was Friday made to land at Mumbai by the Indian Air Force after it was found using a false call sign, an IAF official said here.

A chartered flight from Diego Garcia was made to land on Friday at Mumbai by the Indian Air Force after it was found using a false call sign, an IAF official said here.

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"All private planes are supposed to use a specific call sign. But this plane was using a call sign generally used by US military aircraft," the official said.

"Due to this, we realised that it did not have a valid air defence clearance to fly over India," the official added.

"Following this, IAF aircraft escorted the chartered flight to Mumbai."