<"Night landing to be allowed at Goa airport from Jan 8". This item in Goa related news of goanet also appears, with a few changes, in HERALD, Jan 7. The problem of separating facts from fiction (due to typos) is thus deep rooted. We have both the local and outside media to contend with. The giveaway in the original is the following:<8.77 acres land which would be used for facilities like three apron and constructing seven arrow bridges,>. That should read "aero" not "arrow", right? In HERALD "apron" has been pluralised to "aprons"! The more important question is about the number of passengers per day at Dabolim. Now HERALD has given it as 3000. This works out to only over 1 million per year. Just a couple of months ago, HERALD had given the figure as 8000! Maybe some typo problem between 3 and 8. At the lower level there would not be much of a congestion problem. Finally, there is the eternal issue of night flying. If it already existed since 2003, where is the question of "extending" it? And what is this about giving permission to keep the airport open for night landing "from Jan 8"? The Navy is always shouting from the house tops that night landing is there and not being utilised. Cheers.
