US Marines "Grounded" in Mumbai

by Mritunjay | October 18, 2009 at 05:07 pm

231 views | 42 Recommendations | 5 comments

A chartered North American Airlines Boeing 767 on its way to Bangkok from Fujairah in the UAE carrying one of the most coveted armed forces in the world, the US Marines was forced to land by the Indian Air Force (IAF) after it was detected to be flying in the Indian airspace without the requisite Air Operation Routing clearance (AOR) necessary to ferry military personnel and ammunition. The plane had Marines among its 205 passengers.

The plane was allowed to head for its destination late on Sunday night after defence-related clearance issues were sorted out, TV reports said. The flight is likely to resume its journey on Monday, airport officials said.M G Jhungare, GM of Mumbai Air Traffic Control, told TOI,"The aircraft, with military personnel on board, was passing over Mumbai. While civilian aircraft take permission from the Director General of Civil Aviation for using Indian airspace, military planes or those carrying ammunition must take permission from the defence ministry. This one didn't have the permission. We asked the pilot to land in Mumbai on the instructions of defence ministry officials.''

The army personnel were travelling under the US military central command program called R&R (Rest and Recuperation) meant for both civilians and combat personnel attached to the defense department. The marines were in possession of submachine guns and Glock pistols though the US Consulate in Mumbai said that its not unusual for them to carry light weapons even on such trips.

The aircraft was landed at 7:52am local time on Sunday morning at the Mumbai airport and after the immigration and legal procedures the flight was cleared to take off by 2:30pm. Though due to completing maximum flying hours the crew had to be rested and hence the flight is now scheduled to fly out on Monday.

The passengers and the crew have been put up at a local five-star hotel and the Mumbai police have beefed up the security in and around the area. Bomb detection and disposal squad has also been pressed into service. The location has not been revealed due to security reasons.

"Necessary security measures have been taken to ensure the safety of all the passengers," Deputy Police Commissioner Brijesh Singh said.

The consulate personnel also said that they will be sent on a local sightseeing on Monday before leaving Mumbai.

“We are pleased that we were able to resolve this procedural matter in an expeditious fashion and appreciate the assistance and co-operation of the Indian authorities,” the US consulate said.

This is the fourth airspace violation by a foreign plane in India since June this year. The IAF has made three such interventions and landed planes without requisite clearance. The fourth one was a C-130 plane of the UAE Air Force which was on its way to Hanyang in China from Abu Dhabi and had landed at the Kolkata airport to refuel. The security personnel later detected an undisclosed cache of arms and ammunition and the plane was released after five-days when the UAE authorities pitched in.

Oh, I have no complaints how the US marines are treated as guests. India should be truly grateful to them as they were keeping the Islamic Terrorists from our collective neck for a long time.

At the same time I could not wonder about the conditions Indian troops face comparing to the 5 star stay the US marines received. Here is an old article but the news still relevant.

Sorry, I was thinking loud.

Pankaj Jha, a medium-level officer in the Indian army, shot himself with a service revolver earlier this month. He was 38.

Nobody quite knows why Lt Col Jha pulled the trigger on himself - he had been serving in the military for the past 14 years. According to his mother, Lalita Jha, "there was no tension, no problems. I just can't understand why he did it".

He is far from the only soldier to take his own life this year - Capt Sunit Kohli, Maj Sobha Rani, Lt Sushmita Chatterjee... the list goes on.

In fact, the Indian army is losing more soldiers in these incidents than in action against the enemy.

The army has lost 72 soldiers to enemy attacks so far this year. But over 100 soldiers have already taken their lives. In addition, another 32 have been killed by their colleagues.

What is happening to the army?

The million-strong force is clearly under tremendous stress.

Though it has not fought a full-blown war in decades, the force is bogged down in fighting domestic insurgencies, guarding restive borders and sometimes quelling civilian rioting.

Most experts attribute the growing stress to low morale, bad service conditions, lack of adequate home leave, unattractive pay and a communication gap with superiors.

Retired Maj Gen Afsar Karim, who has fought three wars, says that the stress may be high among soldiers because of lack of leave.

"The army is involved in a [difficult] long running internal security environment. There is lack of rest and they get very little leave. Lack of leave increases his stress," he says.

"Soldiers get angry when they are denied leave and their officers themselves take time off. It triggers a reaction, they are well armed and they take their own lives.''

Then there is the question of what many say is low pay - starting salaries in many jobs in middle-class India are double that of a new soldier, and for many of them the army no longer holds out the promise of a good life.

Retired Maj Gen Karim suspects that with the increase in numbers of soldiers, cohesiveness is being eroded.

"In our times, we used to know the names of our soldiers, where they came from. We used to meet their families, but now the army has expanded manifold and this cohesiveness is gone," he says.

.Agent.

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Hugh Askew

at 18:56 on October 18th, 2009

Them Marines will like that 5 star hotel!

Mritunjay

at 19:05 on October 18th, 2009

After Afghanistan they will like anything! The weather is also holding good so hopefully the "detention" won't be as painful.

At times such things make you think that why established professional airliners make such mistakes.

israeli.agent

at 20:35 on October 18th, 2009

"....crew have been put up at a local five-star hotel..."

To where the bill been sent?

Babel-Fish

at 21:40 on October 18th, 2009

Well the marines will enjoy themselves especially those that love curry. I remember once being false to stay in Bermuda once for two days or so, we had to land because of an engine failure on the way to a military tour in Belize. It was of course dreadful to much good food and one could go blind at looking at the beautiful women. lol

The bill is paid out of military funds, Agent its common decency to do so, its looks like the local authorities have paid for the sight seeing tour and that's good PR and hospitality. Lets face the troops deserve such when there R&R plans are delayed or interupted.

at 22:48 on October 18th, 2009

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