Mid-air turbulence acquired new meaning on Wednesday with Mamata Banerjee fuming in her seat as a Jet Konnect flight circled the city for an extra 30 minutes without the pilot communicating to the passengers why the plane wasn’t landing.
When the Boeing 737-800 from Bagdogra finally touched down at 3.25pm and the doors opened, chief minister Mamata stormed out of the aircraft to meet officials and demand an explanation for not being informed about the reason for the delayed landing.
“She called up a senior official of air traffic control and then confronted the duty manager of the domestic terminal, who was waiting to receive her. The officials briefed her on what the problem was, but Mamata wasn’t convinced. She said the passengers should have been informed about it,” a member of her entourage said.
The Jet pilot had apparently faced difficulty aligning the aircraft with the runway in the rain. Once that was resolved, a Kingfisher flight running short of fuel had to be cleared for priority landing, further delaying the chief minister’s flight.
Mamata, who was returning from a tour of earthquake-hit Sikkim and north Bengal along with Union minister of state Mukul Roy, couldn’t get over it even after leaving the airport. She headed straight for Writers’ Buildings, where she had a meeting on the incident with chief secretary Samar Ghosh and home secretary G.D. Gautama.
Sources in the chief minister’s secretariat said the home department had then written to the Airports Authority of India (AAI), seeking an official explanation.
Before leaving Writers’ for the day, Mamata said she still had no idea what was wrong with flight 9W2481 that brought her and 89 other passengers to the city from Bagdogra. “It was scheduled to land at 2.55pm, but it kept hovering over the city. They told me there was a technical issue. A technical issue can persist for 10-15 minutes, not more than that,” she said.
A senior official said the AAI’s regional office had instituted an inquiry, based on the chief minister’s complaint.
The Jet Konnect flight was around six nautical miles (11.1 km) from the city when the pilot informed air traffic control that blinding rain was preventing him from aligning the aircraft with the runway for landing. “Personnel manning the tower asked the pilot whether he needed assistance, at which he sought permission for a go-around (circling the city till conditions improve),” the official said.
Senior pilots said there was nothing unusual about such a request. “This is a very common thing. If a pilot feels it is unsafe to land, nothing can force him to do so. It is also not binding on a pilot to make an announcement about any such delay,” a retired flight commander said.
As if a restless VVIP on board weren’t a problem already, an SOS to air traffic control from another aircraft forced flight 9W2481 to extend the go-around by several more minutes. The pilot of the Bagdogra-Guwahati Kingfisher flight had failed to land at its destination because of bad weather and was seeking priority clearance to stop at Calcutta for refuelling. “The pilot approached Calcutta air traffic control after being unable to land at Bagdogra. The aircraft was running short of fuel,” a source said.
The Kingfisher flight touched down at the city airport at 3.17pm, by which time a miffed Mamata was straining at her seat belt. Union minister Roy was seated beside her. “She had a window seat, 11A. Her eyes were glued to the glass, apparently trying to make out where we were. I heard her saying a couple of times that the weather was bad and the pilot could be facing problems because of that,” said an aide accompanying the chief minister.
Ratan Mukherjee, confidential assistant to the chief minister, said he was scared as the minutes ticked by without any announcement from the cockpit. “We didn’t know where we were. The situation was scary,” he told Metro.
Jet Airways, which operates Jet Konnect, hadn’t made an official statement on the incident till late on Wednesday. An official who didn’t wish to be named said the delay was a “routine thing” in bad weather. “The pilot didn’t want to take a risk and decided to circle the airport for sometime.”
A cargo flight of Etihad Airways faced a similar problem later in the day and sought permission for a go-around, sources said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com
http://www.telegraphindia.com
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