An Indian Air Force special aircraft carrying External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to Mauritius went “off radar” for around 14 minutes on Saturday, causing anxiety to the authorities in the island nation. The plane later landed safely shortly after the Mauritius air traffic control pressed the panic button and tried to locate the flight.
Sushma was travelling to South Africa from Trivandrum with a stopover at Mauritius on IAF VVIP Embraer aircraft Meghdoot. However, the scare happened when Mauritian air traffic control and the crew of the Embraer could not establish contact with each other for some time after the plane entered Mauritius airspace.
Since the aircraft out of its radar was carrying a VIP, the Mauritius Air Traffic Control (ATC) pressed the alarm button — INCERFA — 12 minutes after Sushma’s plane lost contact with the ATC. The usual drill is to wait for at least 30 minutes before declaring a plane missing or pressing the panic button INCERFA, which means it is not known if the aircraft or its occupants are safe.
The MEA has not commented on the issue so far. Government sources said the crew of the flight followed the laid down procedure to deal with the situation.
“The Indian Air Force (IFC 31) carrying the Minister of External Affairs departed from Trivandrum at 1408 IST for Mauritius. The aircraft changed over from Indian airspace to Male ATC which then established contact with the aircraft at 1644 IST. However, IFC 31 could not contact Mauritius ATC after entering Mauritius airspace. Mauritius ATC activated INCERFA (uncertainty phase),” the Airports Authority of India said in a statement.
The uncertainty phase is the first of the three emergency phases, the other two being the alert phase and the distress phase.