Hints of India's military operation were evident on flight radars 90 minutes before the strikes

New Delhi: Indications of the military operation carried out by India against terrorist bases in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) were visible in the skies at least 90 minutes before the strikes began. However, aviation fans, who regularly track flight radars, had no clue that India was launching a major operation.

India had closed the airspace over the India-Pakistan international border near Jaisalmer in Rajasthan from 3:30 pm on Tuesday to 9:30 pm on Wednesday, citing that the Indian Air Force would be holding an exercise in the area.

The first indication of India’s action came from an Indigo aircraft that took off from Amritsar airport in Punjab at 11:30 pm on Tuesday. The airport at Amritsar is the closest to the international border, and flights taking off to locations such as Delhi usually fly for some distance in a straight line parallel to the border. However, on Tuesday night, the Indigo flight changed its route and flew towards Shimla. Nearing its destination, took a right turn towards Delhi. An Air India flight that took off from Amritsar to Delhi soon after the Indigo aircraft also followed this altered route.

At 12:40 am on Wednesday, not even a single Indian aircraft was in the airspace lying north of Delhi. Meanwhile, Thai Airways flights in the skies at that time took a roundabout route to Bangkok. Several planes bound for Chandigarh and other airports were diverted to Delhi.

At 12:48 am, another Thai Airways plane coming from Afghan airspace and was supposed to fly to Bangkok over Pakistan and India changed its route midway over Pakistan and headed to Dubai, avoiding Indian airspace.

An Emirates flight bound for Sialkot in Pakistan abruptly took a U-turn at 12:49 am. Over ten other planes belonging to Saudi, Qatar Airways, Jazeera Airways, and other airlines similarly took U-turns.

When India's military operation officially started at 1:05 am on Wednesday, no commercial aircraft were present in the Pakistani airspace near the Indian border. A Thai Airways plane scheduled from Lahore airport at 1:05 am did not receive clearance for takeoff. Soon, social media reported that blasts had occurred at several locations in Pakistan and PoK during the following minutes.

At 1:42 am, the landing of a Qatar Airways aircraft from Doha at Karachi airport was aborted, and the plane returned to Doha. Five other Qatar Airways flights, which were present in Pakistani airspace at the time, also returned to Doha even though they were very close to their destinations. 

By 1:44 am, when India officially announced that it had struck targets in Pakistan and PoK, the entire Pakistani airspace was vacant.