The Hindu : Mysterious U.S. jetliner over skies near Chennai

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 01, 2003

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Mysterious U.S. jetliner over skies near Chennai

By T.S. Shankar

CHENNAI JAN. 31. For over three hours this morning, the Chennai Air Traffic Control (ATC) tower authorities were kept on "tenterhooks", as they spotted an "unidentified" U.S. Air Force Boeing-707, flying around 170 nautical miles East of Chennai Airport.

Giving details of the cruising aircraft which was flying without identifying itself to the Chennai ATC or to the Indian military liaison unit attached to the airport, the National Airports Division of the Airports Authority of India (NAD-AAI) sources told The Hindu that the US Air Force jet was noticed flying around 35,000 feet between 10-30 a.m. and 1-45 p.m.

The blip movement of the jetliner flying non-stop on the North-South direction stretching up to Colombo without any proper ATC guidance was tracked down by the Monopulse Secondary Surveillance Radar (MSSR) at the Chennai airport. This radar is capable of identifying the call sign, type of aircraft, flight level and the identity, based on the available data of registered planes.

The sources said the plane did not respond to any of the radio channel frequencies of the Chennai ATC, including the emergency channel and several attempts made by the Air Traffic Controllers proved futile to establish radio contact with the "unidentified aircraft". The aircraft went off the Chennai ATC radar screen after 1.45 p.m.

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