A VVIP jet carrying External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj lost contact with the Air Traffic Controller (ATC) for close to 14 minutes on Saturday afternoon, creating a minor scare.
The aircraft carrying Swaraj and her entourage had left Thiruvananthapuram for Mauritius en route to South Africa. The Indian External Affairs Minister visited Mauritius on June 2-3 while on her way to a meeting of BRICS Foreign Ministers in South Africa.
Swaraj was in Mauritius to oversee the preparations of the next World Hindi Conference, which is being organised jointly by the governments of India and Mauritius.
A short while after leaving India, the aircraft lost contact with the Mauritius ATC.
Confirming the development, the Airports Authority of India said the aircraft carrying Swaraj left Thiruvananthapuram for Mauritius on Saturday afternoon. The air space in India is managed by AAI.
“The aircraft changed over from Indian airspace to Male ATC, which then established contact with the aircraft at 16.44 IST. However, IFC 31 (the aircraft carrying the Indian External Affairs Minister) could not contact Mauritius ATC after entering Mauritius airspace. Mauritius ATC then activated INCERFA (the uncertainty phase). Later at 16.58 IST, IFC 31 came in contact with Mauritius ATC and landed,” the AAI said in a statement.
Mauritius ATC activated INCERFA (uncertainty phase) without allowing the stipulated time period of 30 minutes to lapse from the time when the aircraft last contacted the ATC. “This was perhaps done because the flight was carrying a VIP,” the AAI statement said.