An apparent hijack on an Indian airliner turned out to be a false alarm today.
Senior ministers were dragged from their beds for crisis talks and commandos surrounded the aircraft ready to storm it.
Civil Aviation Minister Mr Shahnawaz Hussain blamed confusion between the pilots of the Alliance Air domestic flight from Bombay to Delhi and air traffic controllers (ATC) in the western town of Ahmedabad.
"It was not a mock exercise or a planned exercise. We had assumed that the plane had been hijacked and the prime minister was also awake and was being informed," he told reporters after the 52 people on board the Boeing 737 had left the plane.
"It was a false alarm. The confusion arose between ATC Ahmedabad and the pilots," he said, adding the air traffic controllers had received an anonymous call suggesting that the aircraft was going to be hijacked.
The civil aviation minister said the air traffic controllers had contacted the pilot after receiving the anonymous call. The pilots were sealed off inside the cockpit.
One passenger who said he was an official wanted to go inside the cockpit and due to that, confusion arose between the pilot and the passengers about hijackers being on board, he said.
The incident, which brought police, ambulances and anxious relatives to Delhi airport, was the first reported hijack since the September 11th suicide attacks in the United States.