After Mamata's flight faces hiccups, state govt seeks reports from DGCA

Our Correspondent

Kolkata: The state government on Saturday sought a report from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's aircraft encountering mid-air turbulence while returning from Varanasi on Friday afternoon.

It is learnt that the Home department has also written to the Airports Authority of India (AAI) on the same issue to initiate a thorough probe. Banerjee suffered a back injury caused by the steep climb-down the flight had to make to cope with the turbulence.

According to sources, the state government wants to know from the DGCA whether the route taken by the plane in which Banerjee, Trinamool Congress chairperson returned to the city from Varanasi after campaigning for Samajwadi party on Friday had been granted prior permission.

The state government is concerned because the weather condition was good on Friday and there was no forecast of any rain or storm. But still, the flight faced such turbulence, as a result of which the pilot rapidly descended a height of approximately 5000 feet. So there was a great jerk and disturbance inside the flight. According to sources, the passengers of the flight, including Banerjee, were informed that another flight suddenly came in the way of their flight so the rapid climb down was initiated.

However, Nabanna top brass was not convinced about this fact and hence had sought a report from the DGCA.

"We conduct investigations in all such cases and accord priorities where VVIPs are involved. We have already started working on preparing our report in this connection," a DGCA official said.

Banerjee was on board a Dassault Falcon 2000, which is a 10.3-tonne lightweight plane with a capacity of carrying a maximum of 19 people, including two flight attendants.

The chartered flight carrying Banerjee from Varanasi airport to the city hit an air pocket causing the plane to rock violently.

The pilot managed to steer the plane out of the air pocket and land it safely in Netaji Subhas Chandra International Airport, Kolkata.

The TMC on Saturday demanded a high-level probe into the incident.

"There should be a high-level probe by the DGCA covering all aspects from the aviation point of view. There should also be another probe by the Centre from the security aspect as the Chief Minister is entitled to Z category security," TMC national spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said.

Roy said the party wanted to know the reason why Banerjee's plane had faced similar situations in the past during her flight from Patna to Kolkata and from Bagdogra to Kolkata.

The party's mouthpiece Jago Bangla's editorial on Saturday also flagged off the issue.

In November 2016, a private airline she was on while returning from Patna had hovered over Calcutta skies for over half an hour before landing at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International airport. The Trinamul had then alleged a "conspiracy to assassinate" the party chief since the flight was allowed to hover while running low on fuel. In August 2017, an Air India aircraft in which the chief minister was scheduled to return to Calcutta from Delhi was delayed by nearly four hours as one of its cooling units had failed and the airline was trying to arrange for an alternate flight.

In February 2018, while on her way back to Calcutta after a tour of North Bengal, the flight from Bagdogra had hovered for around 30 minutes as no runway was free. An irate Mamata had questioned the Director-General of Civil Aviation why the aircraft in which she was travelling was not given priority to land.