Who moved my helipad?

R R Patil and Gopinath Munde left hovering in the air for two hours after party workers provide wrong GPS coordinates to their pilots

Former deputy chief minister R R Patil and BJP leader Gopinath Munde were left circling the skies for close to two hours on Sunday when their respective pilots could not locate the helipads.

The pilots were left scrambling for a place to land, as the Global Positioning System (GPS) coordinates supplied to them by party workers were incorrect.

According to NCP office bearers, Patil's helicopter kept circling over villages in Vidarbha's Gondia-Bhandara constituency.

"The coordinates given to the pilot were inaccurate. As a result, the pilot could not spot the helipad," acknowledged a NCP spokesperson.

In Munde's case, his helicopter kept circling Mahagaon town in Yavatmal district.

An exasperated aviation source added, "Not only did the party workers not get the coordinates from the right sources, the workers at the rallies tried to direct the landing from the ground." Both Patil and Munde's office staff said the major worry was that the choppers could run out of fuel.

They had only an hour's worth of fuel left when they finally landed at alternate locations. The pilots tried to spot large crowds, flags, a stage, etc to determine the landing spot. Most of the helipads used during elections are temporary in nature and are prepared by party workers.

Impossible to locate

Explaining how the system works, a pilot with Pawan Hans Helicoptersu00a0 said, "The party workers are supposed to provide exact coordinates so that the pilots can pinpoint the exact location of the helipad. From the sky it is next to impossible to pinpoint the landing location."

Jayant Poovaiah, executive director, Deccan Aviation, which has rented out helicopters for this election, said, "Generally, the helicopter operators get hold of local maps from the PWD, because regular flying maps are
smaller and do not show locations of small villages and towns. The GPS coordinates are provided by a local
fieldsman. This could occasionally go wrong and cause disruptions."

The guidelines
DGCA guidelines issued for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections stipulate that the pilot in command has to file a detailed flight plan to ensure that the flight is free of obstacles.