Landing permission for Rahul Gandhi's aircraft neither granted nor denied, says Defence spokesperson
Kochi, Dec 1: A Defence spokesperson said on Friday that the Union Defence Ministry had neither accorded nor denied landing permission for an aircraft carrying Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at the Naval airport in Kochi.
The clarification came after the Congress alleged that the Ministry of Defence denied landing permission for Gandhi's chartered flight at the Naval facility early on Friday.
The defence spokesperson told PTI that the request for "an unscheduled chartered flight along with the flight plan" was received at INS Garuda air station at Kochi at 09.40 am on Friday and at Navy HQ at about 10.15 am for takeoff from Kannur Airport at 10.45 am.
"Due to the delayed request and paucity of time prior to the departure of the flight, the clearance for the same could not be processed," he told PTI.
Earlier in the day, Ernakulam DCC president Mohammed Shiyas alleged that the Defence Ministry had initially granted permission for the aircraft's landing at the Naval facility but later withdrew it.
Consequently, the aircraft carrying Gandhi from Kannur was directed to the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) in nearby Nedumbassery, he had said.
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11 more bodies retrieved from Arunachal accident site
Itanagar (PTI): Eleven more bodies were retrieved on Saturday from the deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district, where a mini-truck on which 22 labourers from Assam were travelling fell, an official said.
With this, 17 bodies have been recovered from the accident site, Anjaw's deputy commissioner Milo Kojin said.
He said three more bodies will be brought out on Sunday.
The operation, being conducted by a joint team of the NDRF and Army, resumed at 6 am.
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"The retrieval process was extremely difficult because of the treacherous terrain, and the gorge is very deep," Kojin said.
The operation was suspended around 4 pm due to low visibility and will be resumed on Sunday morning, he said.
"One person is still missing, and a search operation will be carried out tomorrow," he added.
The accident happened on the evening of December 8, around 40 km from Hayuliang towards Chaglagam in the district. On the evening of December 10, one survivor managed to climb out of the gorge and reach a nearby Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) labour camp, following which the authorities were alerted.
Six bodies were recovered from the gorge on Friday and handed over to their families on Saturday.
