Indian military plane sparks scare for PM

NEW DELHI—A small plane that appeared to tail an aircraft carrying the Indian premier sparking a national security scare belonged to the military, officials said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Boeing-737 was ordered to circle over New Delhi for 15 minutes late Tuesday as a precaution after air controllers saw an unidentified blip on the radar.
“An equipment failure in a transponder installed in an Indian airforce Dornier caused the blip on the (radar) screens which seemed to be chasing the prime minister’s plane,” a senior airforce official told newsmen.
In fact both planes were on their proper courses. “There was no security breach,” the official said a day after the airforce scrambled warplanes to escort Singh’s aircraft down to safety. The prime minister was returning from a day-long trip to the eastern Indian city of Ranchi.
Singh’s special plane only recently has been equipped with military radars and other anti-missile defence systems against possible attacks by anti-Indian rebels.

—Agencies