Major scare in Mumbai Airport

A near-miss in Mumbai airport

Mumbai (PTI): In a major scare in Mumbai airport, a possible collision was averted on Monday when a Delhi-bound Air India aircraft with 150 passengers on board applied emergency brakes and aborted take-off after it sighted a helicopter of the Presidential fleet landing on the runway.

The pilot of IC-866, an Airbus A-321 aircraft, aborted take off when he saw the helicopter landing on the runway he was about to use and eyewitnesses later said they noticed smoke from the tyres, one of which burst on the impact of the emergency braking.

There was no official word on whether President Pratibha Patil was on board this helicopter, which was part of a three-chopper fleet that had ferried her from the naval base 'INS Kunjali' to the airport for onward flight to Gondia in Vidarbha in Maharashtra by a Boeing 737.

Immediately there appeared to be a blame-game among different agencies, with the captain of the passenger aircraft wondering how the helicopter was allowed to land when he was taking off.

The Air Force maintained that the pilot of the helicopter was "meticulously following the directions of the Air Traffic Control".

The Civil Aviation authorities, however, said the ATC noticed the movement of the Air India aircraft on the active runway 27 and asked it to immediately apply brakes and exit through the taxiway. The aircraft exited immediately and the helicopters landed safely.

Readers here may wonder why this news item was posted by me and what significance it has. Let me explain.

Read through the news article. See the BLAME GAME in action, which is typical of the Indian bureaucracy and the government agencies.

But more significant is this - There seem to be the utmost concern for the safety of the President and Co, with hardly any comment about the endangered lives of 170 innocent Indian passengers on the plane, who nearly lost their lives, because the highly sacred, very important (VVIP) fleet of helicopters decided to use a busy commercial airport to make a landing there.

For whose convenience ? , risking whose safety and breaking what commercial air safety rules v?. Those details are not important. Will the persons responsible for this will be punished.?..Not important.!!

Not at all.

What is important in this whole incident , is that the holy, holy, sacred, venerable, VVIP is safe and sound.

All the rest be damned.

Are we a democratic country with laws that apply equally to all citizens, or a country that calls itself 'a democratic nation, but in reality a raw and totally unashamed feudal entity.

You be the judge.

I m totally agree wid U. In our country I apologies to say this there is so much security for VVIP & VIP's But what abt the common people. No body bother abt the common People. Are we not that much Important to our country..
As like VVIP or VIP , Our lives to important to make such a Nation. Ryt? Then y Only a common man has to suffter all time.
Our govenment have to do somthing for the security of Common man too..

wait for another century for india to change :(

or rather drive the change on our own.....rather than blaming the government, we all could do our bit in our everyday life and see the country soar greater heights.

The government has to be blamed. Must be blamed at all time.
If not, from present sleep mode, they will go into snoring mode.

There are so many things, it could do with a simple change in
its RULE books, to address some of the situations of the day.

It has not done even that.
Its netas are busy lecturing, pontificating and making political noises.

To put it bluntly..talent, drive and commitment to improve
matters..are qualities missing in our leaders and netas.

Too much compromising, too little progress.