Swedish fighter jets make a halt at Chennai airport

CHENNAI: Six fighter jets and two transport aircraft made a halt at Chennai airport since Sunday night. The aircraft left on Tuesday noon. The purpose of their visit is not known.

"The planes came from Ahmedabad and has left for Andaman and Nicobar Islands," said a senior Airports Authority of India ( AAI) official. "We learnt that the jets came in a formation and left to either the Andamans or Sri Lanka. The fighter jets were parked on the unused secondary runway that is closed for expansion works."

Air force planes belonging to other countries are allowed into India with special permission. A coordinating agency is usually appointed to interact with them to assign flight routes and parking space.

Commander of Tambaram Air Force station group captain Mittal said he was not aware of the visit. "If it was a friendly military joint operation, we would have been notified and the jets would have landed at our air field in Tambaram." The aircrat instead used the civil airport.

A defense ministry official said that the jets may have halted at the airport for re-fuelling enroute to some destination.