An Indian Air Force plane carrying Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj lost contact over Mauritius air space for nearly 14 minutes on Saturday, according to the Airports Authority of India.
“Indian Air Force Flight IFC31 carrying Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, departed from Trivandrum at 1408 IST for Mauritius. 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...Later at 1658 IST, IFC 31 came in contact with Mauritius ATC and landed,” AAI said in a press statement.
The plane was traced after the Mauritius Air Traffic Control activated INCERFA, the code word for a situation where uncertainty exists regarding the the safety of an aircraft and its occupants.
While such an alert has to be issued only after 30 minutes of losing contact with the ATC, in this case it was generated earlier perhaps because the plane was carrying a VIP, AAI said.
The next two levels of warning include ALERFA or the code for alert phase and DETRESFA for a distress phase.
Ms. Swaraj was on her way to South Africa for the BRICS summit.