Germans fly in, stroll out

Two German pilots on a world tour took Calcutta airport for a pit stop where they could land, park and walk out without any formalities and, shockingly, did so unnoticed until moments before their return journey two days later.
Marc Aurel Lehmann and Carl Heinz Maxwitat, both in their late 60s, landed their two-seater DA 40 aircraft at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on Monday and casually walked out after parking it on hangar No. 9, close to where Air India keeps its aircraft.
The veteran pilots didn’t bother going through immigration and customs clearance, and none of the airport personnel who might have seen the duo walking out bothered to tell them that they should.
The security breach was discovered only on Wednesday, when Lehmann and Maxwitat showed up at the immigration counter before they were to take off for Phuket, Thailand.
“They admitted to making a mistake and apologised. Their documents were checked and because everything was in order, they were allowed to leave,” said Basab Talukdar, the deputy commissioner of security control and foreigners’ regional registration officer.
The Germans told immigration officials that they were “extremely tired” and needed rest, which is why they “hurried off to a hotel”.
After travelling 180 nautical miles south of Calcutta, Air Traffic Control lost touch with the pilots.“We contacted Bangkok later and were informed that the aircraft was 50 nautical miles north of Phuket,” an official said.
Airport sources said it was the responsibility of the handling agent —usually an airline— to guide foreign pilots through the necessary formalities. Lehmann and Maxwitat did not have a handling agent and drew up their travel plans on their own.
23/05/08 Sanjay Mandal/The Telegraph

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Categories: Airports May 2008, Foreign May 2008, Safety May 2008