Chief Minister’s Flight Faces Mid-Air Turbulence

India: The West Bengal government on Saturday sought a report from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s aircraft encountering mid-air turbulence while returning from Varanasi, a top bureaucrat said.

The state government also wanted to know from the DGCA whether the route taken by the plane in which the chief minister returned to the city from Varanasi on Friday evening had been granted prior permission, he said.

Ms Banerjee was returning from Uttar Pradesh after campaigning for the Samajwadi party.

When contacted, an official of the DGCA said that they have already started working on the report.

“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,” he told news agency PTI.

On Friday evening, the chartered flight carrying Ms 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 here though Ms Banerjee suffered a back injury caused by the steep climb-down the flight had to make to cope with the turbulence.

Ms 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.