30 May 2010: The air crash at the Bajpe airport on Saturday 22nd May 2010 led tot he death of 158 on board the Air India Express IX 812 flight from Dubai to Mangalaore. Such a huge loss of life is shocking and makes one to think whether many more lives could have been saved if the passengers and the airline crew were quick in dealing with such a situation. Here are some examples as to how air disaster have been dealt with.
27th July 1976, an Air France flight carrying 300 passengers was hijacked by Palestinian militants and was taken to Entebbe Uganda, the Jewish passengers were held hostage. Israel a fairly new Nation took upon itself to release the hostages. One hundred Israeli defense force Commandos flew all the way from Israel to Uganda, carried out the operation in ninety minutes and released all the hostages with loss of one life, the Unit chief Jonathan Netanyahu. This operation also called the thunderbolt, still remains one of the heroic mission carried out by any country.
Entebbe Airport
24th December 1999, a plane en-route Nepal to Delhi carrying 176 passengers was hijacked by pro-Kashmiri militant group. The demands were the release of their leaders in Indian prisons. The plane landed in Amritsar before heading to Khandahar, but was not stopped by Indian authorities. The hostage negotiations went on for seven days and finally ended with the then Foreign Minister of India, Jaswanth Singh flying the militants in a private plane to Kandahar.
IC 814 at Kandahar
2nd August 2005, Air France flight 358 touched down Toronto Pearson International airport but overshot the runway by three hundred meters and burst into flames. Miraculously all 309 passengers including the cabin crew survived because of the quick thinking of highly trained staff. The whole plane was evacuated within ninety seconds of the disaster in a text book manner and the lives were saved. The runway was only 9000 ft, probably the smallest one at that airport.
Air France 358
22nd May 2010, IX- 812, Air India express a plane carrying 166 people from Dubai landed at 6.20 am at Bajpe international airport and overshot the runway and burst into flames. There were only 8 survivors, who jumped out of the plane and were able to get to safe location with the help of locals, the rest were burnt alive and the wounds are still raw in the minds of the people.
IX- 812 at Mangalore
The above incidents were similar, the former involved terrorism and the latter human error. Why were the outcomes different? If a tiny nation like Israel can fly its commandos over 4000 miles into a foreign country and rescue its people, why can’t India, a great nation with so many young and smart people do better? If Canadians can recue all 308 passengers in a span of ninty seconds , why couldn’t we save more people at Bajpe? Do we lack the courage and patriotism? Do we lack the political will? Does our education system not give us enough critical thinking skills? or are Indian lives less valuable than any other nationals?
There will be many more questions in the coming days, and as a concerned and patriotic citizen, it makes you think what is wrong with India and Indians? Where are we taking our nation in this century? You be the judge.
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