New Delhi: An Air India flight to Bhubaneswar from Delhi was delayed by five hours allegedly due to pressure by some VIPs, who forced the national carrier to schedule the aircraft along with its crew to Bhopal, a charge denied by the airline.
The BJD MP, Tathagath Satpathy, has alleged that his flight to Bhubaneswar from Delhi was re-assigned to Bhopal after a minister from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh and two judges put pressure on Air India.
According to Satpathy, the move took place after a phone call from the Madhya Pradesh minister and action should be taken against the Air India officials.
There was ruckus at IGI airport over the issue. The BJD MP also sat on a dharna at the airport.
However, the Madhya Pradesh minister, Sartaj Singh, claimed that it was due to the mismanagement on the part of Air India, claiming that he was not at fault.
"This was due to mismanagement by the airlines and such carelessness needs to be looked into, must be put to an end...There was no fault of mine in this, I don't even tell people I'm a minister most of the times, so it had nothing to do with me," he said.
The national carrier, however, said it did not give preference to any particular flight and the alleged delay was caused due to the heavy fog at the Delhi airport on Friday, which had sent flight schedule of all airlines including that of the Air India topsy turvy.
Due to heavy fog from yesterday morning and resultant delays, most of the crews' duty time was limiting later on in the day. Crews were planned as per their arrivals from earlier flights, back to Delhi and sequenced based on the duty time remaining, Air India said.
"At no time did AI give any preference to any particular flight. Arriving and available crews duty time remaining as per regulations was checked and they were scheduled for the flights based on time and sequence," it said
(With additional inputs from PTI)
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