Kolkata, Sep 7 - A transport aircraft of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Air Force that had landed at Kolkata airport for refuelling Sunday evening was detained for carrying weapons and explosives without declaring them, an official spokesman said here Monday.

All nine officials aboard, including the captain of the aircraft, were questioned for the entire day by the customs officials. The plane will only be allowed to leave after clearance from customs and the Indian Air Force, the spokesman said.

The UAE Air Force plane (C130J) was flying from Abu Dhabi to Hanyang in China and had landed at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International (NSCBI) airport here to refuel.

'It was a routine transit. They had applied for permission through the embassy and subsequently followed the necessary procedure by filling up an official form,' a defence ministry spokesman said.

'But in the official form they just wrote 'nil' in the particular column where it was required to mention whether the aircraft was carrying any arms or explosives on board,' defence ministry spokesperson (Eastern Command) Wing Commander Mahesh Upasani told IANS.