Was the Air Force chopper at fault?

Mumbai: A major tragedy was averted at the Mumbai airport on Monday morning. An Air India plane and a helicopter came close to a collision, which was prevented at the very last minute.
Was the Air Force at fault for not following the standard operating procedure in this case?
When a VIP is flying, the fleet normally flies in a single file with the leading helicopter speaking to Air Traffic Control (ATC).
In this case, sources say it was the second helicopter, which told ATC that it was three miles away. The ATC assumed there was enough time for the Air India flight to take off.
However, at that moment the first helicopter of the presidential fleet was already in the path of the Air India aircraft.It was at the very last moment that the ATC noticed this helicopter very close to the commercial plane and asked the latter to abort takeoff.
At this point, the helicopter landed on the same runway-- at right angles to the Air India plane, barely metres away from it.
09/02/09 NDTV.com

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Categories: Air India Domestic Feb 2009, Airports Feb 2009, NACIL Feb 2009, Safety Feb 2009