The report, submitted to the civil aviation ministry this afternoon, made 20 recommendations to improve security for VVIPs when they are flying.
A high-level investigation has blamed procedural errors and a lack of coordination for the near-collision between an IAF chopper from the President’s convoy and an Air India flight at the Mumbai airport in February.
The report, submitted to the civil aviation ministry this afternoon, made 20 recommendations to improve security for VVIPs when they are flying. These include creating separate procedures for copters used by VVIPs. Within days of the near-collision in February, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), the Indian Air Force and the Airports Authority of India decided to investigate the matter and find what caused the incident and whether Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) were flouted.”
The report blamed the incident on the lack of coordination between the IAF and the control tower at the airport. Not only did the choppers not keep the requisite distance between themselves for the Pratap formation, they landed on the runway without getting permission from the control tower. Air traffic controllers manning the tower too were unaware of the VVIP procedures so that the confusion about the sequence of the chopper formation and their possible landing and take off time could have been avoided.
The DGCA has asked the AAI and IAF to work out details of these procedures. “In the absence of a standard procedure for landings and take offs, the VVIP helicopter lands on the main runway, the VVIP deplanes and the helicopter flies off to a parking bay or hanger,” said an official from the civil aviation ministry.
Three choppers carrying President Pratibha Patil had a miraculous escape when it tried to land on a runway from which an Air India flight (IC-866) was about to take off. The AI pilot aborted take-off at the last moment to avoid a possible collision with the chopper.
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