[olympus]

It's not just himself he is putting in danger. There are people surrounding the airport that could be hurt in a crash. If he were able to go to an airport with no people around then it could be safe. I'm not very familiar with India's geography, but I doubt he could easily find an airport that isn't surrounded by people.

The Virgin Galactic crash was during an approved test flight from the FAA. That means that the FSDO (flight standards district office) was satisfied with their design process and believed that they had taken necessary precautions (like testing it in the desert). The VG plane was designed by a team of engineers, and this plane was designed by a pilot (contrary to popular belief, pilots are not all-knowing).

India has a similar requirement, and their regulators say this guy doesn't meet the standards. Is it because of corruption? Is it because of incompetency and being unwilling to waste their time to examine his plane? Or is it because they looked at it and know that his design is actually unsafe?

I don't know the real answer. The article claims they aren't giving him a fair shake. There are convincing arguments in this thread that the plane won't fly well.

[kranner]

> I'm not very familiar with India's geography, but I doubt he could easily find an airport that isn't surrounded by people.

It is currently parked at Mumbai airport, which is surrounded by Dharavi: an extremely densely populated area. According to Wikipedia, Dharavi has a population density of over 277,136 people per sq km.