Airspace over Arabian Sea, which the Indian Navy had requested to be shut for commercial flights on Saturday, remained open for three hours even as the Navy fired some of its most lethal surface-to-surface missiles. The Navy wanted the airspace shut between 12:30 hrs and 15:30 hrs, but forgot to clarify IST or GMT. The Air Traffic Control assumed it was GMT and ended up closing the airspace three hours after the exercises began.

In those three hours of long range missile exercises, many commercial airliners passed through the airspace. Both the Navy and the Air Traffic Control remained tight-lipped on Monday on how many commercial aircraft passed through the airspace when the exercises were on and whether there were any near-misses. Commercial flights across routes connecting Asia to the Middle East and Europe use this airspace.

“Procedure-wise, there will never be any danger to any civilian aircraft. There is a lot of surveillance in the area. In fact, the entire area is kept out of bounds for all ships for 24 hours,” a DNA report quoted Commander Rahul Sinha, public relations officer (defence) as saying.

Despite the the error, it is fortunate that no mishap occurred in the precarious airspace. The success is significant, given that the missile provides the much-needed teeth to one of the most modern indigenous destroyer.

“The missile accurately hit the target, a decommissioned naval ship…This is significant step in the operationalisation of the Navy’s latest guided missile stealth destroyer,” a defence ministry source said.