Missile test shocks pilgrim plane http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599...16-401,00.html A SURPRISE Indian missile test forced an Indonesian airliner packed with passengers to turn around mid-flight and head home, the foreign ministry in Jakarta said Friday as a diplomatic spat brewed. The Garuda Indonesia jet, full of Muslim pilgrims en route to Saudi Arabia, had reached Indian airspace when the nuclear-capable ballistic missile streaked across the sky yesterday, forcing the plane to turn around. The Indian ambassador must explain as soon as possible why the incident happened since the airspace should have been closed, Indonesia's foreign ministry said. "Usually closed airspace is alerted to international authorities but the fact is, our plane flew and had to return," ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo said. The ministry could lodge a formal protest over the incident, Indonesia's Transport Minister Hatta Rajasa told the Kompas newspaper. "There was no prior information about the test," the national carrier's operations director Ari Sapari was quoted as saying in the report. The Boeing 747 jet carrying 400 people aborted its flight after 90 minutes and returned to the Indonesian capital Jakarta, the report said. "This clearly disrupted our schedule and caused us big losses," Mr Sapari was quoted as saying. The plane resumed its journey four hours later. The jet's exact location relative to the missile, which trailed orange and yellow smoke as it rocketed skyward, had not yet been made public.