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Fred, The Harrier crashes are not a part of the Dabolim debate, but since you brought it up, here are my views. The Harrier is a very demanding aircraft for any pilot to fly due to its vectored thrust which gives it the unique VTOL capability. The total number of crashes are not alarming when viewed against the period of time and total flying hours, and the figures are as good or as bad as the Royal Navy, Royal Airforce, or US Marine Corps, who are the other big users of this type. In the Indian Armed Forces, a court of inquiry is ordered when a death occurs, or if equipment over a certain value is lost, such as an aircraft accident. This is done to ascertain pilot error, equipment failure, or other causes, and to ensure that the lapses are not repeated and the guilty are punished. The details of military courts of inquiry are classified and not normally available to the public. regards, Gilbert Menezes. Message: 20 Date: Sat, 23 Oct 2004 21:50:07 +0530 (IST) From: "Frederick Noronha(FN)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [Goanet]Re: Dabolim Airport Debate To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] On Sat, 23 Oct 2004, flower wrote: > track record, particularly with MIGs (not only in Goa, but in rest of the > country even quite recently), is a bit scary. I guess you mean the vertical-takeoff Sea Harriers, bought from Britain and which have been crashing with amazing regularity (not necessarily over the Vasco area though). At one stage, I had been following the number of Sea Harrier crashes, which were mostly tucked away in the news as tiny single-columns or two-column items (not mentioning the earlier crashes, so thus not placing the issue in context. In all, over half-a-dozen of the these planes crashed; going away from the Dabolim airport issue alone, it's strange that nobody thought of investigating the cause for such repeated mishaps. In each incident, a court of inquiry was announced. But this too seems to have been soon forgotten; public memory is short. So no explanations seem to have been demanded as part of the public debate, and none were obviously offered. FN