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.