UAE Air Force plane with arms held at Kolkata

Last Updated: Monday, September 07, 2009, 23:44

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Tags: UAE Air Force, Kolkata Airport, United Arab Emirates

UAE Air Force plane with arms held at Kolkata

Kolkata: A transport aircraft of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force that had landed at Kolkata airport for refuelling Sunday evening was detained for carrying weapons and explosives without declaring them, an official spokesman said here Monday.

All nine officials aboard, including the captain of the aircraft, were questioned for the entire day by the customs officials. The plane will only be allowed to leave after clearance from customs and the Indian Air Force, the spokesman said.

The UAE Air Force plane (C130J) was flying from Abu Dhabi to Hanyang in China and had landed at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) airport here to refuel.

"It was a routine transit. They had applied for permission through the embassy and subsequently followed the necessary procedure by filling up an official form," a Defence Ministry spokesman said.

"But in the official form they just wrote 'nil' in the particular column where it was required to mention whether the aircraft was carrying any arms or explosives on board," ministry spokesperson (Eastern Command) Wing Commander Mahesh Upasani said.

"When the customs officials from the airport boarded the aircraft to carry out a customary check, they found a large cache of arms, ammunition and explosives inside, which was not mentioned in the form. They immediately informed the Airports Authority of India (AAI), police and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF)," Upasani said.

"Later, all nine crew members, including the captain, were taken for interrogation and the aircraft was parked at one of the airport bays," he said, adding that the customs officials did a "wonderful job" by detecting the arms and ammunition in the plane.

"The UAE Air Force personnel were quizzed for the entire day. The case is now with the customs and once they clear it and give permission to the UAE aircraft to fly out, then only it will come to us," he said.

"They will also again have to seek permission from the Indian Air Force (IAF) before they fly out from here," Upasani said.

IANS

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First Published: Monday, September 07, 2009, 23:44

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m ramesh sharma - kolar gold field
The word` Nil it self shows something wrong.the crew has not given permission to enter.the route between abu dhabi to china is correct.
appeal to indian government dont take easy
this all the warnings and yesterday they enter upto 1.5 kms in ladak region.day by day they are becoming super power
Note dont be in 5 star hotel you know the per day rent will survey one month of military payment
if you are not wake to take action. word fool will call in world

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girish - gulf
UAE official might have thought that we are lazy people and keeping important field will not make any change......let them go thru the hardlines coz f such serious fault by the higher authorities.....good job done.....mean time how much our officials got fm uae to release them

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rupendra rakshit - yamuna nagar
It is surprising that an aircraft carrying arms ammunition lands in our country without declaring anything about the consignment and then after being caught they are simply allowed to move. Concealing such kind of information can cause tremendous harm supposing that they could have been some terrorists in disguise. There had been an arms drop case in the past and why did the captain of the plane hid this truth needed thorough probe and the crew should not have been allowed to leave. Had this happened in China and had the crew been Indians, the outcome would have been vastly different. allowing the crew to leave is unfathomable.

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Helal ghazali - Hajipur
Late in the night, a meeting was held between the airport authorities, customs officials, senior Air Force officers and the UAE crew and permission was finally granted to the plane to resume its flight on Monday morning, sources said. other media news- What we do for the person guilty in purulia arms dropping from plane? we released all , why so?