IAF probe into R-Day fly past problem

The Naval aircraft had to fly over the formation since it was already flying at its minimum speed and could not slow down any further.

The Navy and the Air Force have been trading charges over the mistake. The IAF says that prima facie, the fault lies with the Navy pilots who came in one minute ahead of time. The Navy, however, says it was the IAF which was monitoring the fly-past and the ground radars could have alerted the Navy aircraft.

However, the IAF has ruled out the possibility of a mishap, saying that the pilot could see the other aircraft and if the visibility had been poor, the fly-past would have been called off. 8220;The naval formation of three TU-142 aircraft by coming early did not maintain the three-km gap and thus had to overfly the Big Boy formation,8221; he added.