DGCA guidelines on landing, take-off over locust threat

Aviation regulator DGCA on Friday issued guidelines for stakeholders like pilots and engineers on how to deal with locust swarms, saying they pose a threat to aircraft in the critical landing and take-off phase of a flight.

India is battling the worst desert locust invasion in more than 20 years.

“Though an individual locust is small in size, impact of large numbers on the windshield is known to have impacted the pilot forward vision. This is a grave concern during the landing, taxi and take-off phase,” the DGCA circular said.

“Large swarms can obstruct visual ground contact over a large area, therefore flights under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) also need to be aware of their presence. Air traffic controllers, when aware of locust presence in the vicinity of their aerodrome, are advised to share the information with all arriving and departing flights,” the DGCA said.

Being a day-time phenomenon, the pilot is also expected to keep an eye for any such observations, the DGCA said.

The Indian government on Friday doubled down on its rejection of US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate on the border standoff with China, with people familiar with development contradicting the American leader’s remarks that he had discussed the “big conflict” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

China too rejected Trump’s offer of mediation, and foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the two countries don’t need the intervention of a third party as they have existing mechanisms to resolve problems. China’s foreign and defence ministries described the situation at the border as “stable and controllable”.

The reactions from New Delhi and Beijing came hours after Trump reiterated his offer to mediate between border troops of the two countries at a briefing at the White House early on Friday (Indian time). Trump initially made the offer to mediate through a tweet on Wednesday. Though it was turned down by India’s external affairs ministry on Thursday, he said on Friday that Modi was “not in a good mood” regarding the “big conflict” with China. The people cited above, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the last conversation between Modi and Trump had occurred before the standoff, and the discussion had centred around the US request for supply of hydroxychloroquine to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is the second time New Delhi has called out such a claim by Trump. In July 2019, India dismissed Trump’s remarks, at a joint news briefing with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, that Modi had asked him to help resolve the Kashmir issue. Trump reiterated his offer to arbitrate at the White House briefing.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian rejected the US offer and said: “We are capable of properly resolving the issues between us through dialogue and consultation. We do not need the intervention of the third party.” Both Zhao and defence ministry spokesperson Senior Colonel Ren Guoqiang described the situation at as “stable and controllable”. “The two sides have the ability to communicate and solve relevant issues through the established border-related mechanisms and diplomatic channels,” Ren said in an online media interaction.

Zhao told a news briefing on Friday: “We have been implementing the important consensus reached by leaders of both countries, observing the bilateral agreements and have been committed to safeguarding territorial sovereignty and security, stability and peace in the border area.”

The statements from China’s foreign and defence ministries were perceived as a sign that the government isn’t willing to let the situation worsen through a war of words with India.

Arun Singh, who served as India’s envoy to the US during 2015-16, said, “The US president is erratic and unpredictable and even Twitter is hiding his tweets. I’m sure even he wasn’t expecting a positive response from India or China. We should ignore it and move on,” Singh said.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has said the government must come clean on the border face-off between India and China along the Line of Actual Control (LAC).

“The Government’s silence about the border situation with China is fueling massive speculation and uncertainty at a time of crisis. GOI must come clean and tell India exactly what’s happening,” he tweeted on Friday.