Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on Wednesday heaved a huge sigh of relief after his Olympic quota-winning Perazzi gun was retrieved, a fortnight after it was lost by Lufthansa Airlines on his way back from Cairo, Egypt.
NEW DELHI: Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore on Wednesday heaved a huge sigh of relief after his Olympic quota-winning Perazzi gun was retrieved, a fortnight after it was lost by Lufthansa Airlines on his way back from Cairo, Egypt.
Werner Heesen, the general manager of passenger sales in India and South Asia, Lufthansa Airlines, said the weapon was lying at the Frankfurt customs warehouse and would most probably be handed over to the Athens Olympics silver medallist by Thursday.
"The weapon was found in the warehouse in the custody of the Frankfurt airport authorities," Heesen said.
"As it is a gun and not normal baggage, it will be given special treatment and needs certain formalities for its shipment. It should most probably reach here by Thursday’s direct flight from Frankfurt," he said.
Rathore clinched a gold at the ISSF Shooting World Cup in Egypt last month, and with that a quota place for the 2008 Beijing Games, before the gun was reported lost in transit.
Heesen said the airlines left no stone unturned to retrieve the gun and were first informed of the positive news from Frankfurt during his meeting with Rathore early this week.
"We were sincere in our effort and in regular touch with Rathore about the status of his gun. I received the first call about the gun when we met this week but I did not want to commit to him until and unless we were sure of it.
"At Frankfurt they told us that such a weapon had never been lost in the history of the airport. Particularly after September 11, it is very unlikely to happen, so it could not have got out of the airport's security," he said.
On how the equipment reached the warehouse, the airline official said that was "still an area of investigation. That was why there was delay in delivery of the gun. That's now part of our internal investigation."
Heesen said they had lodged a first information report in Frankfurt to find the gun and were successful as they never gave up the search.
"We are very conservative because we were not promising anything which we were not able to fulfill.
"It was an unfortunate incident and Rathore did not know where the investigation stood. But when we informed him he was relieved. It was his lucky gun and he had got it tailor-made for himself," he said.
On the status of trap shooter Birendip Sodhi's gun, which was lost when the marksman was returning to India from the United States more than three weeks ago, Heesen said the possibilities of finding that gun were also bright.
"The case is still with the US authorities. They are very serious about weapons especially after the September 11. It (the gun) did not reach Lufthansa. But there is a very good possibility of finding it."
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