Air Commodore Wieko Syofyan said the Indonesian air force sent the fighter planes to chase away the Malaysian Royal Air Force aircraft Hercules with a tail number of TUDM 12-30 detected by radar crossing the border into Indonesian air space of Natuna without permit.
The government of Malaysia protested the action saying the Malaysian aircraft did not fly in Indonesian air space, Wieko said here on Tuesday.
"However, the air force radars in Natuna and Tanjung Pinang clearly showed C-130 Hercules aircraft already entered the Indonesia air territory and was identified as foreign aircraft without permit," he said.
The dispute should prompt the two neighboring countries to hold consultative meeting to discuss air corridors and borders to prevent a repeat of such incident.
Such consultation is important as the two countries already had an agreement in 1982 on the archipelago country legal regime and Malaysian right in the air space over Indonesian archipelago water territory, he said.
However, there has been no agreement on air space border in which Malaysian aircraft could fly without clearance from the Indonesian authorities, he said.
Therefore, as there has not been such agreement, the Indonesian Air Force sees the Malaysian C-130 Hercules aircraft had violated the Indonesian air territory without clearance, he added.(*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
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