An Amritsar-bound Air India flight recently found itself in Pakistani airspace for a short while, sparking fears of retaliation from Islamabad.
The AI 479 flight, which left Delhi on the night of June 22, is said to have "marginally infringed" into Pakistan's airspace, during a manoeuvre around the Amritsar airport.
While local reports have claimed that it was technical glitch that caused the mid-air error that led the Airbus A-321 flight into rival airspace, the airline has not officially confirmed this.
"The incident has been reported to the regulatory authorities and is being investigated internally. At Air India, the safety of passengers and crew remain top priority," the airline said, as per a Hindustan Times report.
How Pakistan responded
The incident quickly came to the attention of Pakistan's air traffic control (ATC), which soon contacted its Indian counterpart and informed them of the error with a warning.
In line with international rules and protocols, both countries peacefully handled the return journey of the flight from inside Pakistan's airspace to Delhi.
This comes after Pakistan on June 17 extended its airspace ban for India for yet another month, till July 24.
These airspace restrictions were imposed a day after the devastating Pahalgam attack of April 2025, which saw 26 people killed in Jammu and Kashmir, and a further escalation in tensions between the two nuclear neighbours—for which New Delhi blamed Islamabad.
India had also enforced a similar airspace restriction on Pakistan, at around the same time.
What happened to the AI 479 flight?
After the Air India flight landed safely in Delhi, it was thoroughly examined by technical crew.
However, due to the unexpected nature of the incident and the length of the formalities at Delhi, it was only four hours later before the flight was cleared to leave for Amritsar, where it landed just after 2 AM on Tuesday.
Given the serious nature of the incident, authorities are continuing to probe the issue further.
