Mamata strains at seat belt

Calcutta: 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.
A senior official said the AAI’s regional office had instituted an inquiry, based on the chief minister’s complaint.
22/09/11 The Telegraph

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Categories: airports Sep 2011, Jet Airways Sep 2011