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Pakistan allows IAF duo to land in Karachi

NEW DELHI: In a rare show of camaraderie, Pakistan has allowed an Indian Air Force duo to land in Karachi in order to help them better the world record for round-the-world navigation in a microlight aircraft.

Currently in Rome and behind schedule by a big margin, Rahul Monga and Anil Kumar must hit Jamnagar in Gujarat by next Monday to erase the earlier record books of 99 days to circumnavigate the world in a single engine aircraft. With time running out, Pakistan was requested for assistance and it agreed to allow the aircraft to land at Karachi and then quickly make the journey to Jamnagar. From there, with IAF help at hand, they will be able to quickly make their way to their starting point here and be in time to beat the six-year record.

United Kingdom’s Colin Bodill is the present record holder. He circled the globe in a microlight flight in 99 days in 2001. The air warriors have been asked to better this record by a more than 10 per cent margin. They had originally planned to do so in 64 days but with time running out, the original flight plan was junked to attempt a landing in Pakistan and then fly across the border to the bordering state of Gujarat. The IAF has confirmed the

Pakistani acquiescence though it was reluctant to do in view of the sharp political divide in Pakistan at present and the fact that the event was taking place a few days after the country’s Independence Day.

The IAF pilots took off on June 1 from Delhi and made the first stop at Allahabad. They then took off for Bagdogra in West Bengal from where they crossed the international boundary into Myanmar. The original plan was to make stopovers at Thailand, Vietnam, China, Russia, United States, Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Denmark, U.K., Germany, Switzerland, Italy.

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