NEW DELHI, Feb 4: India on Tuesday accused the Karachi Air Traffic Controller of giving wrong instructions to a US transport plane that was forced to land in Mumbai on Monday after it strayed into Indian airspace.

“The problem was because of the Karachi ATC. They knew this route was not available, yet they gave it to the cargo plane. The crew has been interrogated,” Indian Minister for Civil Aviation Shahnawaz Hussain said.

Hussain told reporters that the 11-member crew of the Boeing 757 was now being questioned by the officials of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

The American version of the incident was not immediately available.

Hussain said the Intelligence Bureau sleuths had completed their inquiry but he refused to give any further details.

The crew of the aircraft was confined to the reserved Lounge of the Sahar Terminal at Mumbai’s Chattrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Indian Air Force had earlier cleared the crew at 0200 hours on Tuesday. IB officials later questioned Captain John Burg and his team, news reports said.

They said the IAF had forced the Boeing 757 belonging to Conco Corporation with registration number N610G, flying to Male from Karachi, to land in Mumbai after it was found flying over Indian airspace without permission.

United States Vice Consul General Michael Cole met the crew led by Captain John Burg even as the aircraft was towed away from the isolated bay to be parked at the international terminal, airport officials said.

The plane was flying on the N-519 route segment which is not permitted between 0600 and 1800 Indian Standard Time and the Boeing violated the airspace before 1800 IST on Monday, the reports said.

Conco Corporation is an aviation and engineering company handling chartered flights and providing engineering services out of Nashville. This Boeing had taken off from the US on Jan 31 and after re-fuelling stops at two places, including Munich, it reached Karachi on Monday, Press Trust of India said.—J.N.