Australia learned about Chinese live-fire naval drills off the country’s coast that forced dozens of flights to be diverted via an alert from a commercial pilot, authorities said on Monday.

Dozens of commercial flights had to change course last week when they were surprised by Chinese naval drills off the coast of Australia. But China said its navy repeatedly issued notices.Some 49 commercial flights were forced to change course last Friday when Chinese warships unexpectedly announced naval drills off the eastern coast of Australia,

Beijing's defence ministry on Sunday accused Canberra of "deliberately hyping up" a Chinese live-fire drill off the Australian coast, saying it was "deeply surprised and strongly dissatisfied" with the claim that it did not give enough notice.