PM's Favourite Aircraft Is Back In Action,The Original Air India One Rejoins Modi's Entourage In Canada

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to fly from Berlin to Ottawa, the Canadian capital, on a standby aircraft specially sent to Germany owing to a snag in the Boeing 747 that flew him out last week for the ongoing three-nation tour.

AI has five B-747s, all at least 20 years old, and keeps a couple of them on standby whenever a VVIP goes overseas. On Monday, AI detected a snag in the engine of the B-747 ferrying the PM's entourage.

"The snag in the aircraft parked in Berlin was not a serious one. But since it was supposed to fly the PM, it was decided not to take any chances and send another B-747, that was on standby in Mumbai, to Berlin. The standby aircraft reached Berlin in time to fly the PM onward to Canada as per schedule," an AI official said.

By late Wednesday evening (India time) AI had repaired the first aircraft. It is being flown to Toronto so that the PM can complete the remaining leg of his journey on the aircraft he originally boarded. The first aircraft is custom-made for dignitaries, with a bedroom, washroom and meeting area. Standby aircraft are not custom-made. The second plane will remain in Canada should it be required again.

AI has been asking the government for quite some time to find a replacement to the ageing VVIP jumbo jets. It has now been decided to replace them with the brand new Boeing 777-300 extended range (ER). TOI had first reported on February 1 that this long-range plane had been chosen as the successor for the B-747s. The Maharaja extensively uses the B 777-300 ER for long-haul flights, including the non-stop ones to North America. Choosing this aircraft would mean that AI can use it for commercial flights when they are not required for VVIP visits.

Meanwhile, we decided to do some probing of our and decode the secrets of the Air India One's interiors by analysing this one photo from his Instagram feed. It's just much more fun!

How many journalists are on board? No clue, but there has to be a photographer

instagram | narendra modi

For his Bhutan and Brazil visits, 8 journalists from news agencies and public broadcasters flew with him.

Even the PM needs a needs a filter.

This is our incredible investigation into a possible before and after if his photographer had used a filter.

This might be the first time he's not staring the camera down

We've done an entire article on how Modi is ridiculously vigilant about the camera, but this is the first time he's not staring it down. Unless, there's a camera hidden inside the newspaper!

Here! :-D pic.twitter.com/JJECraKSlW

¡ª Sarfaraz (@BabaGlocal) November 17, 2014

There's probably no liquor onboard

NewsFirst: I don't drink, will not allow too,#Modi order to remove liquor bar from 'Air India One' plane @InfoGujarat pic.twitter.com/HaSvre6rH9

¡ª NewsFirst (@newsfirstlive) August 23, 2014

(You caught us! We didn't get this from the pic). Indian premiers before Modi were pretty chill about a free flowing Air India One bar as over 30 journalists needed to be "entertained"; So did the security and secondary officials who accompanied the PM on his travel.

indianhistorypics

But according to sources, the new PMO is full of teetotalers, and Modi doesn't want private media journalists.

This guy is also probably not on board

He might have to hire a red carpet team though

Unlike Air Force One, Air India One is not hard to shoot down

As we had reported when Obama was flying into India, it is apparently not that hard to shoot down Modi¡¯s plane with a missile - even the Special Protection Group's (SPG) haven¡¯t approved it. Defence analysts don¡¯t like it either and have requested for four-engined aircrafts with self-protection suites. Air Vice-Marshal (retired) Manmohan Bahadur of the Centre for Air Power Studies even said the only way Modi can stay alive is by avoiding conflict areas.

The fact is that Air India One is a simple commercial airliner without any self-protection systems.

As for Obama¡¯s plane, it¡¯s actually pretty hard to shoot down - because there¡¯s a decoy in his fleet of 3, with the other, a chartered jumbo jet for office staff and his security team. The communication center won¡¯t be affected by electromagnetic interference after a nuclear explosion.

People think Modi¡¯s Instagram feed is their Orkut account

While some post specific requests to repair their streets

Others valiantly defend Modi and fight with these people.