The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Monday ordered an inquiry into the collision scare between its helicopter carrying President Pratibha Patil's entourage and an Air India aircraft at the Mumbai airport this morning.
IAF also vehemently denied its pilots were at fault in the mix-up and claimed they had meticulously followed the instructions given to them by the Bombay Approach.
An IAF spokesman told PTI, "the pilots of the chopper had followed the instructions from Bombay Approach meticulously. But we have ordered an inquiry into the incident to further learn about the averted mishap."
He said the Presidential entourage was cleared to take off from INS Kunjali, a Naval air base, and land at Santa Cruz airport "between the 'W' and 'R' taxiways."
"These instructions were clearly followed in letter and principle," he said.
But, the IAF would follow the procedures in such incidents to ascertain the cause of the goof-up and hence ordered the inquiry, he added.
The Air India flight was about to take off on the same runway on which the chopper landed, forcing the pilot to abort take-off.
{{/usCountry}}The Air India flight was about to take off on the same runway on which the chopper landed, forcing the pilot to abort take-off.
{{/usCountry}}Patil was not present in the IAF helicopter that was involved in the incident.