NEW DELHI, April 23: A small plane that appeared to tail an aircraft carrying the Indian premier sparking a national security scare belonged to the military, officials said on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Boeing-737 was ordered to circle over New Delhi for 15 minutes late on Tuesday as a precaution after air controllers saw an unidentified blip on the radar.

“An equipment failure in a transponder installed in an Indian air force Dornier caused the blip on the (radar) screens which seemed to be chasing the prime minister’s plane,” a senior air force official said.

In fact both planes were on their proper courses. “There was no security breach,” the official said a day after the air force scrambled warplanes to escort Singh’s aircraft down to safety. The prime minister was returning from a day-long trip to the eastern city of Ranchi.—AFP