NEW DELHI, June 8: ``Any intruding Indian aircraft will be shot down.'' It took ``tremendous political courage and maturity'' not to have retaliated in the face of ``extreme provocation.''

That's what Pakistani Foreign Minister Gohar Ayub Khan has been reported as saying in a recent newspaper interview. His statement may be politically correct in Islamabad but is factually wrong.

For, according to sources in the Defence Ministry, the IAF aircraft which created the ``sonic boom'' on May 27 was a MIG 25R flying at a speed of Mach 2.8 at a height of about 75,000 feet, beyond the range of any Pakistani radar or missile. And, therefore, it couldn't be intercepted.

In fact, Gohar Ayub himself had earlier admitted, in the National Assembly, that the Pakistan airforce was unable to intercept the ``enemy plane'' because it had no aircraft which could intercept it or any long-range missile to shoot the plane down.

Sources say that most probably, the MIG 25R, while executing a turn, strayed inadvertently into Pakistani airspace. Like all supersonic aircraft, the MIG 25R which can fly as high as 100,000 feet creates a sonic boom when it breaks the sound barrier. Roughly, for every 1,000 ft that the aircraft then climbs, the boom travels an additional nautical mile. (1 nautical mile=1.85 km).

Therefore, it is likely, sources say, that given the height at which the aircraft was flying, the boom travelled way inside Pakistan.

Typically, Indian and Pakistani airforce reconnaisance missions in the area involve ascertaining the other side's reaction time to ``scramble'' aircraft; to test enemy communications or identify radar locations.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.