MNDF has revealed today that the Indian military personnel who were previously operating the helicopters gifted to the Maldives by India had made a trip on the helicopter without notifying the Maldivian military during former President Solih's administration.
Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) has revealed today that the Indian military personnel who were previously operating the helicopters gifted to the Maldives by the Indian government had made a trip on the helicopter without notifying the Maldivian military during the administration of former President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.
Minister of Defence Mohamed Ghassan Maumoon also said in a press conference today that this issue had been raised in the Parliament's Committee on National Security Services (241 Committee) when he had been serving in the committee in his earlier capacity as a member of parliament.
The press conference held today was by MNDF, Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the replacing of Indian military personnel stationed in the Maldives to operate the military aircrafts with civilians from the country. All the Indian military personal in the Maldives for the purpose have left the country as of yesterday, May 10, as agreed between the two countries.
"In the past five years when I have worked in the parliament, there is an instance where the 241 Committee has looked into the matter of a flight having been conducted without authorization from Maldivians. At the time, a helicopter had been flown without Maldivian authorization. In that incident, they landed in Thimarafushi," Ghassan said, while assuring that such unauthorized flights could not have been conducted after this administration came into office.
Chief of Defence Force Major General Ibrahim Hilmy provided further details of this incident.
Hilmy stated that the unauthorized flight had taken place, with the Indian military personnel landing the helicopter in the island of Thimarafushi in Thaa Atoll, about 222 km south of the capital city of Male'.
Hilmy said that at the time, the Indian military had been cautioned that they cannot conduct flights on either the helicopters or the Dornier aircraft without authorization from MNDF.
"They were notified that the helicopter and Dornier can only be operated with authorization from the Maldivian military," Hilmy stated.
The exact dates of the incident, or any action taken by the government following the incident were not revealed.
While there were allegations from different entities at the time that the aircrafts were being operated without authorization, both the Defence Ministry and MNDF senior officials denied the allegations at the time and claimed there was absolute control over the aircrafts and their operations.
The government has now replaced 76 military personnel stationed in the Maldives to operate the flights with an equal number of civilian employees of the helicopter's manufacturer, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.
Ghassan has stated that with this change, MNDF and the Defence Ministry has now gained complete command and control of the aircrafts.
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