An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 cargo plane was forced to make an unscheduled landing in Karachi after it failed to land at Ahmedabad Airport in India.
The cargo flight, en route from Addis Ababa to Ahmedabad, encountered difficulties as it approached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, prompting the pilot to execute a go-around maneuver at 1,500 feet following instructions from Ahmedabad’s Air Traffic Control (ATC). The plane then diverted to Karachi, landing safely at Jinnah International Airport after over an hour of flight. The aircraft later resumed its journey to Ahmedabad from Karachi.
In a related development, despite the ongoing diplomatic freeze between Pakistan and India, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi used Pakistani airspace on his return from Poland to New Delhi on August 25.
According to the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCCA), Modi’s aircraft entered Pakistani airspace at 10:15 am and exited at 11:01 am, spending 46 minutes within Pakistan’s boundaries. The plane entered via Chitral and crossed through Islamabad and Lahore’s air control regions before reaching Amritsar in India. Modi’s trip included a diplomatic visit to Kyiv to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
This event is significant in the context of the strained relations between the two nations. In March 2019, Pakistan reopened its airspace to civilian flights after a five-month closure caused by a military standoff with India. The standoff followed a deadly attack on a security convoy in IIOJK, resulting in 44 paramilitary officers’ deaths. Relations further deteriorated when Pakistan downgraded diplomatic ties and suspended trade after India revoked the semi-autonomous status of IIOJK in August 2019.
