New Delhi: On Friday, Indian Air Force fighter jets forced a Georgian An-12 aircraft to land at the Jaipur airport over violation of air space. The plane was released after a few hours. On Friday at 3:15 PM, the aircraft deviated from its scheduled flight path and entered Indian Air Space from an unscheduled point in north Gujarat. According to the ANI reports, the cargo plane entered the Indian air space around 70 kilometres north of an important air base in the Rann of Kutch, which is closed for civilian air traffic.

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"The aircraft did not follow the authorized Air Traffic Services (ATS) route and was not responding to Radio calls from Indian controlling agencies. Since ATS routes in the area were closed due to the current geopolitical situation, and the aircraft entered Indian Air Space from an unscheduled point, the Air Defence interceptor on operational readiness was scrambled and vectored towards the unknown aircraft for investigation," the government said in a statement.

The aircraft neither responded on international distress frequency nor to visual signals during interception, the government added. Two Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets spotted the aircraft at an altitude of 27,000 feet.

"When challenged, the aircraft responded and informed that it was a non-scheduled An-12 aircraft that had got airborne from Tbilisi (Georgia) for Delhi via Karachi. The aircraft was shadowed and forced to land at Jaipur for necessary investigation," the statement said.

According to the sources, the pilots and crew were questioned. As stated in ANI, the cargo plane was being leased by a Ukrainian engine manufacturer ''MotorSich''.  This was an expected flight on a scheduled route and is not being seen as a major crisis.  "It wasn't a serious violation, it's been released," Jaipur Additional Commissioner of Police told ANI.

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