Had he flown a little to the left, he would not even have entered Indian air space
Had he flown a little to the left, he would not even have entered Indian air space
A minute error in judgment caused the 23-hour-59-minute ordeal involving the AN124 aircraft, which is operated by the US defence forces.
The problem began when the aircraft flying from the Diago Garcia island in the Indian Ocean to Kandahar in Afghan-istan entered Indian airspace by flying within 200 nautical miles of the Indian coastline at 7.35 pm on Friday (see box).
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"Had the pilot flown to the left of the path that he took (and got picked up for), the ordeal could have been avoided though he would have had to guzzle more fuel," said air marshal (retd) S Ramdas.
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Sources investigating the matter said defence radars picked up the aircraft mome-nts after it entered India's Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ).
ID confusion
"The radars picked up the aircraft, which gave out its identity as VDA 4466 (given only to civilian aircraft), but the flight plan suggested that it should be RCH 813 (given only to defence aircraft)," said an IAF official.
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Officials elaborated that as per the AN124's flight plan RCH 813 was to operate through Indian airspace on a military mission to Kandhahar on the civilian number VDA 4466.
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Aircraft that are assigned a military call sign need to obtain an Air Operations Routing (AOR) number from the Ministry of Defence, something AN124 did not have.
What complicated the matter was that the pilot could not explain why the aircraft was mentioned as RCH 813 in the electronic flight plan.
Experts speak
Aviation expert Vipul Saxena said that keeping in view Indo-US relations and the urgency and importance of operational needs in Afghanistan, defence air controllers could have told AN124 to keep out of ADIZ till Karachi had he given the correct code.
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"This would have eliminated the need for the AOR number or for revealing that a civilian aircraft was being
used for military operations, which eventually led to speculations and delays," explained Saxena.
He added that the matter could have been taken up through diplomatic channels later.
Timeline
June 19, 7.30 pm: AN124 enters Indian airspace at point ELKEL, an identification point used by Indian defence forces, located to the north of Male, Maldives.
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June 19, minutes following 7.30 pm: Aircraft told to divert to Mumbai after pilot fails to provide right code.
June 19, 10.15 pm: AN124 lands in Mumbai, taken to remote bay at the end of runway 14, security forces start checking
June 20, 10 am: AN124 moved from remote bay to bay near Air India hanger, crew still onboard.
June 20, 6 pm: AN124 moves to takeoff, but pilot defers it after talking to his employers.
June 20, 10.14 pm: AN124 finally takes off after spending 23 hours and 59 minutes at Mumbai airport.
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