When it comes to ending VIP culture, Air India could turn out to be an accidental champion. For, not only did the airline’s officials make Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis wait for a flight on Friday night, they waited till 20 minutes after the plane’s scheduled take-off time to inform him that it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Authorities from the national carrier then made the CM who had to get to Delhi urgently and his convoy rush to T2 to take another flight, which was also delayed by 14 minutes. The reason the first flight was delayed was that the pilot was not available, despite AI officials knowing that Fadnavis was going to be travelling on it. On Friday, Fadnavis had checked in and was waiting to board AI 605, which was scheduled to depart for Delhi at 9 pm. At 9.20 pm, he was informed that the flight would not be taking off anytime soon. He was not told when the flight would take off. An airline official confirmed that the assigned pilot, Amit Karunakaran, could not report for the flight, which was supposed to fly with 161 adult passengers including the CM two infants and six crew members, as his mandated rest period was not over.
24/11/14 Neha LM Tripathi/Mid Day
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24/11/14 Neha LM Tripathi/Mid Day
