Flight mode: Why these Mumbai planespotters are obsessed with aircraft

In February this year when a 21yearold was apprehended by the CISF while climbing up a wall near Crash Gate No 27 of the Mumbai international airport aviation photographer Vishal Jolapara took to Twitter to point out that it was the Bombay planespotters who had first noticed the breach ldquoThis absolutely invaluable set of keen eyes amp ears that is never given its due instead treated with disdain or worserdquo he tweetedThe man was reportedly unstable but 38yearold Jolapara tells us over a phone call that anything could have happened if this person had escaped the watchful eyes of the authoritiesmdashhe could have landed on the busy runway causing a mayhem or worse been sucked into a jet engine The planespotters who alerted officials on time saved everyone a lot of troubleA picture of Etihad Airways F1 livery Airbus A340600 taken by Sahil PatelJolapara is a crusader of sorts for this fastgrowing community of planespotters in the city who watch and photograph the movements of unique aircraft Many of them are passionate about it but in India itrsquos a clandestine hobby he says because authorities look down upon camera and mobilewielding aviation enthusiastsWhile in India planespotting took off only after the social media boom according to an article published in the aviation publication Simply Flying the term first came about during the Second World War when ldquocountries encouraged civilians to observe aircraft for public safetyrdquo The activity gave rise to a publication called The Aeroplane Spotter that was started to help this community with the identification of different aircraft This led to a spurt in groups and publications that encouraged the hobby Sahil PatelAjay Awtaney foundereditor of LiveFromALoungecom an aviation website focussed on India says ldquoThis was more of an underground communityrdquo For the longest time aviation geeks would share their photographs on JetPhotos founded in 2002 and Airlinersnet started as early as 1995 ldquoBack in the day people would compete to get their photos published on these websites Once they were the hope was to get it on their front pages The rarer the aircraft or aircraft livery the greater the chances you had to have it out there With Instagram taking off many of them have now moved to social mediardquo Globally there is a whole community of them says Awtaney ldquobut in India unfortunately authorities do not encourage this hobby though they donrsquot discourage it either At the Amsterdam Airport Schiphol for instance theyrsquove created terraces and ramps just for planepsottersrdquo Nothing of that sort exists in India According to Section 13 of the Aircraft Rules 1937 no one is allowed to take pictures at airports or from an aircraft except in accordance with and subject to the terms and conditions of a permission in writing granted by the DirectorGeneral a Deputy DirectorGeneral the Director of Regulations and Information or a Controller of Aerodromes of the Civil Aviation DepartmentA photograph taken by Jolapara of the Air Force One carrying Michelle amp President Barack Obama as it departed for New Delhi from Mumbai on November 7 2010 after paying tribute to the victims of 2611 Mumbai Terror AttacksIn fact when we meet planespotter Utkarsh Thakkar on a weekday afternoon at the Western Express Highway a little ahead of the Vakola junction he isnrsquot carrying his DSLR Itrsquos hidden inside his satchel he informs Thakkar 27 goes by the Instagram handle vimanspotter His one eye is on the Flightradar24 app a flight tracker that shows live air traffic notifying him about flights arriving on the Runway 09 which he says is operational only during the winter months There are almost seven to eight of them in queue he says When he sees one hovering above Girgaum Chowpatty he alerts us Three minutes later a plane flies right above us with Thakkar pulling out his DSLR and getting a few clicks during the fleeting seconds These days he prefers making Insta reels they are a hit among his 674K followers Thakkarrsquos fascination for airplanes began when he was a threeyearold and took his first flight Gulf Air to Muscat Oman to meet his aunt ldquoI started taking aircraft photographs because I wanted wallpapers for my laptoprdquo he recalls ldquoBut since I would click decent photographs I started sharing them on Instagram One thing led to another and the hobby turned into an obsessionrdquo This was nearly five years ago The Ghatkopar East resident would visit a secluded spot at Jarimari in Kurla or take pictures from the footpath at WEH all the while trying to elude authorities ldquoSometimes Irsquod go to my terrace I did this all through the lockdown when there were restrictions on travel In fact during that time because special repatriation flights were being arranged I managed to click some very rare aircraft which airlines are now retiring like South African Airwaysrsquo Airbus A340600rdquo Though he has a family business Thakkarrsquos fascination secured him a job with Go Air where he handled their social media He quit in 2021 after a threeyear stintVishal Jolapara who started documenting airplanes nearly two decades ago has coached many young planespottersFor planespotters like Thakkar Jolapara is their ldquogururdquo Jolapara who grew up in Mumbai says his fascination was the result of a childhood dream to become a pilot ldquoAt the time my family didnrsquot have the means and I had to work my way up But I always wanted to be close to planes Finally one day sometime in 200304 my dad took me to this hillock in Jarimari from where you could see airplanes up close and personalrdquo A year later he bought himself a point and shoot digital camera Casio Exilim EX Z750 and this opened a completely new world for him ldquoAfter my photos got published on Jetphotosnet and Airlinersnet they blewup overnight in terms of popularity and with it the fanmail from pilots and AvGeeks of India and around the worldmdashthis was still presocial media erardquo he recalls Jolapara went on to buy himself a Canon 400D upgrading to a highend DSLR Canon 7D 100400mm lens in 2012 Unlike today where there are apps like Flightradar24 to track flights back then there were only rudimentary websites that werenrsquot accurate about flight details says Jolapara ldquoI would check the Mumbai airport websitersquos departure and arrival boards But it was unreliablerdquo Later pilots and enthusiasts whom Jolapara and other planespotters had befriended would alert them over instantmessaging services online Today therersquos a whole community globally and in India connected over WhatsApp groups ldquoSocial media has changed planespotting both for better and worse The purists prefer uploading on reputed websites where you can see the photo in high resolution on a large screen I personally prefer to tell a story with a meaningful caption which requires time and research A lot of it is lost on the younger audience for whom yoursquore just a one second blimp a fleeting scroll on their Instagram feed Tasteful photography has given way to banal videos with coarse soundtracks as reels Sadly it is what the world is consuming and the content creators provide it There are still some very talented spotters producing great photos and videos but theyrsquore in a very small minority To end on a positive the best camera is the one on yourdquo he feelsAir India ATR72600 pilots waving at Sonirsquos camera right Bhavya Sonirsquos passion for planespotting inspired him to become a pilotJolapara recently became a certified pilot and now works as manager marketing corporate communications and customer experience at Star Air He has also coached many a young planespotting enthusiast including 25yearold Sahil Patel who publishes on JetPhotos and also runs the popular Instagram handle airbombay The resident of Kajupada near Jarimari remembers spotting planes from the window of his classroom at St Judersquos High School ldquoI would write the names of the planes in my bookrdquo When he was still in school he once saw Jolapara taking photographs from a secluded spot ldquoWe soon became friends In the beginning I would shoot from my fatherrsquos mobile phone but then Vishal lent me his point and shoot camerardquo he says Patel remembers seeing the new Runway 27 being constructed Today Patel who shoots on his iPhone 12 says this particular runaway offers spectacular views of planes arriving and departing The Airbus Beluga which looks like a whale and which arrived last month for its return departure to Cairo made for a prized picture Thakkar shares the sentiment ldquoIt took my breath awayrdquoThere are those like Bhavya Soni whose love for planespotting led him to become a pilot The aviation geek says his Ghatkopar home was on the approach path of Runway 27 ldquoSo I was used to seeing planes since childhoodrdquo says 25yearold ldquoWhen my sister began pursuing the IATA International Air Transport Association course shersquod bring home booklets which I would read from start to finishrdquo he says Soni who started posting on bhavyasoniin says hersquod count the number of engines try to make sense of their sounds and also the different sizes in which they came Simultaneously he began networking with pilots whorsquod reach out to him after seeing his work ldquoSome of them would meet me when they visited Mumbairdquo Soni says he was mentored by an IndiGo airline pilot who motivated him to fly planes The Air Visara pilot adds ldquoThe truth is that the best views of planes are visible from inside the cockpit I may not able to take a photograph now but I am at the centre of this actionrdquo