Near-Miss Case: Air Chief defends IAF pilots of Prez fleet

The blame game has begun over the near-miss, involving the IAF chopper carrying the resident Pratibha Patil's entourage and the Air India aircraft, at the Mumbai airport. The near-miss has resulted in visible friction between the IAF and the civil aviation authorities. Rejecting suggestions that IAF pilots who were part of the President's convoy could be responsible for the incident, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major today categorically stated that his pilots were not in the wrong and that the DGCA needed to fine tune its procedures.

Reports emanating from Mumbai indicated that that the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Wednesday refused to comment on the Air Chief's statement. However, reacting to Major's statement, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said he did not want to get into any controversy as the DGCA probe was still on but he did add that "maybe the Air Chief had some better information on his side," indicating that the remarks had not gone down too well with him.
Patel also admitted that a good working relationship was lacking between civil and defence authorities as far as airspace management was concerned."We have to learn to work together…airspace should be better managed between civil aviation and defence authorities. Right now we do not have a good working relationship between civil aviation and defence authorities," he said.

Posted in: Helicopter,India