Flight with Marines takes off, finally

Tue, Oct 20 06:16 AM

An aircraft with US Marines on board, forced to land at Mumbai airport on Sunday, finally took off at 5.30 pm on Monday, the long delay apparently caused by differences between the pilots, North American (the airline from which the US military had chartered the aircraft), and the American Consulate, according to officials from the Mumbai airport.

The chartered North American Boeing 767 was scheduled to fly to Narita from U-Tapao Airport near Bangkok. Sources said because of the delay, the pilots were asked to fly directly to Narita, but they refused. According to the flight plan filed by the aircraft's commanders, it eventually took off for U-Tapao, a regional airport about 25 minutes' drive from Pattaya and under the supervision of the Royal Thai Naval Air Division Commander. The aircraft's original flight plan was between Fujairah in UAE and Bangkok.

The sources said the 205 US Marines reported on board around noon and stayed in the aircraft till takeoff. "They had not filed a flight plan yesterday; the aircraft was supposed to fly to Narita from Bangkok. But the aircraft eventually took off for U-Tapao this evening," said an airport official.

The aircraft was forced to land at the Mumbai airport Sunday morning after it had entered Indian airspace without air operating route (AOR) clearance, issued by the Indian Air Force and mandatory for military aircraft. Wing Commander T.K. Singha of the IAF said the aircraft did have a military call sign, 'Reach 818', but added, "Apart from the DGCA clearance, all military and non-scheduled foreign aircraft require AOR clearance that this particular aircraft did not have."

An airport official said Mumbai's Air Traffic Control (ATC) was instructed by the IAF to intercept the aircraft and probe the purpose of the flight. "The pilot then said they were travelling to Bangkok with US Marines. We were then instructed to ask them to land," he said.

"Around 4 pm we got written permission from the IAF to de-cordon the aircraft. We had to cordon it off as long as it was grounded here," said Jitender Negi, senior commandant, CISF.

The Marines spent the night at Hyatt Regency near the international airport. The pilots had overshot their flight duty time limitations (FDTL) and could only resume flying today. Air India provided ground-handling facilities and the US Consulate has agreed to pay the aircraft's route navigation facility charges (RNFC), as well as landing and parking charges, to the Airports Authority of India and Mumbai International Airport Limited.

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