Dino's F-16 hopes crash

Blames it on not having permission from the Ministry of Defence, while Shahid Kapur stole the show, but masked his disappointmentu00a0

Model-turned-actor Dino Morea cursed his poor PR skills, because of which he could not fulfill his dreams of flying the F-16 Super Viper or a Sukhoi at the Aero India 2011, while his Bollywood colleague Shahid Kapur stole the show doing exactly that.


Missed opportunities: Morea looks forlornly at the tarmac. Sharing a
light moment with actress Gul Panag who had come to cheer him on.
Pics/Satish Badiger

After watching Kapur taking to the air on Saturday, Morea thought he was more eligible to be co-pilot of the plane since he was a Bangalorean, and his city was hosting the air show.

Natural choice
"I was born and brought up in Bangalore and I am the natural choice to be a symbolic flyer and promoter of an aircraft in the air show," said Morea. But in the same breath he said, "Perhaps I lack PR skills. I could not get permission to fly a plane."

While he was keen to take the controls of the fighter aircraft, all he got to do was to check out the landing of a flight belonging to the US Air Force at close quarters. "I think my request came a little late. I cannot fly without permission from the Ministry of Defence and I have to be content with whatever experience I was able to have this time."

Hopes shot down
According to Morea, the owner of team Flying Bulls promised to help him and he arrived at the venue yesterday morning with hopes of getting airborne. But, his enthusiasm was downsized soon as he realised he would not be entering the cockpit because proper procedures had not been followed.

An unnamed official of Lockheed Martin, an US based company producing the F-16 said, "There was a procedure to choose a celebrity to fly the air craft, but the formalities had been completed months ahead of the event."

"After selecting a celebrity, he is subjected to several tests, followed by simulator training. A person will be eligible to fly only after the process is complete and we could not acknowledge Morea's request because it came just hours before the event was to close," he added.

u00a0When Lockheed Martin turned down Morea's request, officials of Red Bull tried convincing the Surya Kiran team to accommodate him, but they could not do so because they were not authorised by the government and would not be able to get clearance on such short notice.

Missing out
Although he was disappointed over missing out on the opportunity, Gul Panag joined him in the afternoon and seemed to cheer him up a bit.

"I felt bad for Dino. He was so eager to fly an F-16 and I wish him better luck next time," Panag said.
Morea, masked his disappointment till the event drew to a close, and then rushed to the airport as he had a Mumbai flight to catch.