KARACHI: Three Pakistani passenger flights briefly entered the Indian airspace due to severe weather conditions in Punjab, with air traffic control (ATC) units in Lahore and Amritsar remaining in contact during the diversions, aviation sources said on Thursday.
According to sources, the Lahore-Dubai flight 9P-514 deviated from its route due to adverse weather and entered the Indian airspace near Kasur at 9:13pm. The aircraft reportedly flew over Indian Punjab for around 20 minutes before re-entering the Pakistani airspace near Bahawalnagar at 9:33pm.
Similarly, the Lahore-Jeddah flight 9P-586 entered the Indian airspace near Kanganpur at 8:52pm in an attempt to avoid turbulent weather and returned to Pakistani airspace near Sulemanki at 8:56pm after a brief four-minute transit.
The Dammam-Lahore flight PF-743 also crossed into Indian airspace near Haveli Lakha at 8:59pm and returned to Pakistani airspace near Kasur at 9:05pm after approximately six minutes.
Aviation sources said that due to worsening weather conditions, landing in Lahore was not possible and one of the flights was diverted to Peshawar. They added that ATC Lahore and ATC Amritsar remained in contact on humanitarian grounds during the situation.
