Solar Impulse-2, the world's only 'no-fuel' solar-powered aircraft, is now on its way to Myanmar from Varanasi where it landed on Wednesday evening after a week's stopover in Ahmedabad. It took little over 13 hours to reach Varanasi. This was the only stretch it flew in India on its world tour.
But the aircraft's flight to Varanasi ran into controversy. Swiss Ambassador to India Linus Von Castelmur said on Wednesday night that the Solar Impulse wanted to fly over the ghat and have a helicopter alongside to shoot images of it and the ghats but was denied permission due to security reasons. "We didn't get permits to have a helicopter flying over the airports and the ghats. It was the central government's decision. It's once again a pity but sometimes bureaucrats are not very open minded," the envoy told NDTV adding that it makes him "sad".
The team - which had to put off its departure from Ahmedabad twice due to bad weather since Sunday - tweeted appeals for help, pictures, pithy posts and even its version of John Lennon's 'Imagine' as Mr Piccard attempted to get necessary stamps on his passport this morning.
The sources said when told about this, Mr Piccard, who is from Switzerland, had promised to get his paperwork in order as had the Swiss Embassy later, but no application was made. Not even, said the sources, when the solar plane was to take off on Sunday March 15, before bad weather grounded it.
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