India’s stray missile put dozens of passenger jets at risk, data shows
- Several planes passed through the direct trajectory of the missile on that day but no advisory to pilots operating in the vicinity was issued
- The missile that was accidentally fired from India on March 9, had the potential to turn deadly, with Pakistan preparing to retaliate
A missile that was accidentally fired from India last week narrowly missed dozens of commercial jets that were in the same skies.
Several planes passed through the direct trajectory of the missile that day, which flew from the Indian garrison town of Ambala and ended up in Mian Channu in Eastern Pakistan.
They included a Flydubai jet heading to Dubai from Sialkot, an IndiGo plane from Srinagar to Mumbai and an Airblue flight from Lahore to Riyadh.
All crossed the missile’s trajectory within an hour of its accidental launch, data from flight-tracking application Flightradar24 show.
Other international flights in the vicinity of the missile’s trajectory – and within its range – included a Kuwait Airways jet heading to Guangzhou from Kuwait City, a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight to Riyadh from New Delhi, and a Qatar Airways service from Kathmandu to Doha, the data show.
No advisory to pilots operating in the vicinity – known as a notice to airmen or NOTAM – was issued.
A time-lapse video of the airspace – prepared by Flightradar24 on request from Bloomberg News – showed busy activity in the skies within an hour and half of both sides of 7pm local time on March 9, which India said was the approximate time of the accidental launch.
Pakistan had strike plan after India’s accidental missile firing
India’s “robust” missile-handling procedures are being reviewed and will be strengthened further, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh told lawmakers earlier this week.
“Very unfortunate. It could have led to a disaster, what if it hit a Pakistan International aircraft?” said Mark Martin, founder of Dubai-based Martin Consulting.
“The bigger concern is what if it was taken as a hostile action by Pakistan? We cannot brush it under the carpet, those accountable must be held accountable. This could have escalated into a full-blown conflict.”
The averted tragedy is reminiscent of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014, when a missile owned by a Russia-based military unit hit the plane over Ukraine, killing all 298 people aboard.
In 2020, Iran unintentionally shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet it mistook for a cruise missile, killing 176.
The Indian mishap last week had the potential of turning deadly, with Pakistan preparing to launch a similar missile to strike India.
The nuclear-armed Indian neighbour eventually held fire after an initial assessment indicated something was amiss.
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The flight path of the missile – which Pakistan continuously monitored from near the point of its origin in Sirsa in India – endangered many international and domestic passenger flights both in Indian and Pakistani airspace and could have resulted in a “major aviation disaster”, Pakistan’s military spokesman Babar Iftikhar told reporters in the northern city of Rawalpindi on March 10.
The missile flew at an altitude of 40,000 feet (12,000 metres) and an ultimate speed of mach 3 (2,300 mph, 3,700 km/h), Tariq Zia, a spokesman for the Pakistan Air Force said in the same briefing. Modern commercial jets tend to cruise below and around that altitude.
A top official at India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation didn’t respond to a request for comment. Pakistan’s Civil Aviation Authority and India’s defence ministry also didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
