Pilot scare

Raipur: Forty-one polling teams were forced to spend two nights in Chhattisgarh’s Maoist zone because helicopter pilots refused to fly after Friday’s rebel attack on an air force chopper.
Guerrillas had sprayed bullets on the chopper, ferrying electronic voting machines in Bijapur, killing flight engineer Sergeant Mustafa Ali. The pilots blamed the police, saying they had failed to sanitise the helipad and surrounding areas.
On Saturday morning, the pilots — of air force helicopters and chartered private choppers — refused to fly to the interiors of Maoist hub Bastar to bring back the 250-odd poll officials.
Polling had ended at 3pm on Friday but it had taken the officials an hour to pack up, and by then the choppers couldn’t fly because of poor light. The authorities decided the officials would be brought to the district headquarters of Bijapur and Dantewada — the districts worst affected by Maoist insurgency — on Saturday.
16/11/08 Sheena K/The Telegraph

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Safety Nov 2008