Air turbulence: West Bengal seeks report from DGCA

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 5

The West Bengal Government today asked the civil aviation regulator DGCA to submit a report to it on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s aircraft encountering mid-air turbulence on her return from Varanasi, sources said.

The state government in its query wanted to know whether the route taken by the aircraft in which Banerjee returned to Kolkata from Varanasi on Friday evening had been granted prior permission, they said.

The West Bengal CM had gone to Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to lend support to the Samajwadi Party as part of electioneering for ongoing state Assembly elections.

Sources in the Director General of Civil Aviation office in Kolkata said, they have already begun investigating the matter and soon a report would be submitted. They said the DGCA accord top priority when VVIPs were involved.

On Friday evening, the chartered flight carrying Banerjee from the Varanasi airport to Kolkata hit an air pocket causing the plane to rock violently.

Banerjee was on board a Dassault Falcon 2000, which is a 10.3-tonne lightweight plane, DGCA sources said. The pilot managed to steer the plane out of the air pocket and land it safely in Netaji Subhas Chandra International Airport here though Banerjee suffered a back injury caused by the steep climb-down the flight had to make to cope with the turbulence.

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