Mamata Banerjee’s flight delayed: The leverage of demonetization had to face West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who is completely against the move of Center government when her flight was delayed. As per the information, Mamata had to wait at the Patna airport on Wednesday evening for boarding the flight to Kolkatta.
Mamata Banerjee’s flight delayed due to low fuel
Reports stated that the reason for delaying was low fuel in the aircraft. On the other hand, Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha said in the Rajya Sabha that three planes flying into Kolkata on Wednesday evening including an IndiGo aircraft with West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Board-reported being low on fuel. The minister has ordered a probe by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to see how three planes were reported low on fuel amid turmoil MPs on how could the security of a serving CM Banerjee and other passengers be compromised by the planes carrying less fuel.
The pilots of IndiGo6E 342 which was flying from Patna to Kolkata on Wednesday reported to the Kolkata air traffic control they are low on fuel. At the same time, two more flights, Spicejet and Air India, also reported that they were low on fuel. While seeing the tensed condition, the Kolkata ATC ordered to made them immediate landing, said Sinha. However, Indigo refused that its plane was low on fuel and blamed the confusion on a misunderstanding by Kolkata ATC.
Pilots land flight within 13 minutes
Pilots of the Indigo flight landed it with Mamata Banerjee and 173 other passengers on board within 13 minutes when they came to know that the flight was low on fuel, the minister added. When TMC’s members asked why emergency vehicles such as fire tenders were and ambulances were lined up on the runways, Sinha replied it was a matter of abundant caution.
“Although, there was no any risk to the passengers on board these planes, but DGCA has been asked to see how planes reported running low on fuel when there were standards that a plane must carry suffice fuel to fly from its origin to destination; float at the destination for about 30 minutes; go to an alternate airport which in Kolkata’s case is Bhubaneswar and then drift at the alternate airport for 30 minutes” said Minister.
IndiGo said in a statement: Normal landing at the Kolkata airport
He said the DGCA will see how much fuel were the IndiGo, AI and SpiceJet Flights carrying. “Passenger safety is priority number one for us,” Sinha said. On the other hand, AI did not comment by the time of filing this story, SpiceJet refused any of its flight reported being low on fuel on Wednesday.
In a statement, IndiGo said: “IndiGo flight 6E 342 from Patna and Kolkata made a normal landing at the Kolkata airport on Wednesday, November 30. The flight was kept on hold for landing due air traffic congestion at Kolkata. The pilot operating 6E-342 had advised the ATC that he has 8 minutes of extra holding fuel over Kolkata (destination) before commencing diversion to the planned alternate. However, this information was misunderstood by the Air Traffic Controller who assumed that the aircraft had only 8 mins of total fuel left.”
