They were extended hospitality and support by the Pakistan Government,” he said. MEA Special Secretary Ashok Tomar, who received the passengers in Delhi, praised the Pakistani authorities for their help. “We are happy this situation has ended now and passengers are back. They were treated well by the Pakistan authorities.”

Pakistan's Civil Aviation Authority spokesman Pervez George said the stranded passengers were offered lounge facilities but the pilot declined and did not allow the passengers to come out of the plane, apparently over security concerns.

As per preliminary reports of the engineers flown to Pakistan to check the stranded aircraft, the instrument panel emitted a “false alarm” (pertaining to hydraulic failure) on the computer system.”The cockpit panel emitted false alarm, causing red lights on the control panel to blip. There was nothing wrong with the hydraulics system,” said engineers.

The Civil Aviation Ministry has forwarded an incident report to the PMO. This may be followed by a detailed analysis of by the airline’s permanent investigation board. Since the incident was an “uncommon” occurrence, sources said the civil aviation regulator, DGCA, may even constitute a probe committee.

Backing pilots, experts said they made a right decision. “All warnings lights on the instrument control panel have to be taken seriously. Even the smallest technical glitch in the computer system needs to be rectified before the aircraft takes off again. For each warning light on the instrument panel, there are specified actions in the flight manual-to continue to destination, divert to the most appropriate airfield or land as soon as possible,” said experts.

(With inputs from Afzal Khan in Islamabad)