Maharashtra CM aide delays Air India flight

 

According to sources, Air India AI 191 flight from Mumbai to Newark was scheduled to depart at 1.30 am and all passengers had boarded the flight by 1.15 am except Pravin Pardeshi, who is CM’s principal secretary. 

Apparently, Mr Pardeshi’s valid US visa was stamped on his old passport, which he had not carried with him.

 

“At the time of the check-in, it was brought to Mr Pardeshi’s notice that there was no US visa in his current passport. He realised that the valid visa was on his old passport and he had forgotten that at home. 

 

He made arrangements for getting his old passport from home and he was given a boarding pass so that he can obtain CISF and immigration clearance in time,” a source said.

The said passport had not reached the airport even as Mr Pardeshi reached I&FP for the secondary check, after which the Air India decided to offload him and the process was started. “Two officers also approached the CM and appraised him of the situation. However, the CM said he would not travel without his delegation,” the source said.

 

An official said that the process to offload all eight members in the CM’s delegation and their baggage had started. The offloading process also included 14 pieces of baggage from two containers and preparing new load sheet, which would have delayed the flight.

 

Fortunately, Mr Pardeshi’s passport ar-rived at the boarding gate just as the off-loading process was on. After the documents were checked, all passengers boarded the flight at 1.55 am and the flight, which was scheduled to depart at 1.30 am took off at 2.27 am. The Air India in its official statement maintained that the delay was due to technical reasons. 

 

“The flight AI 191 of 29th of June 15 was delayed by 57 minutes. The delay was partly due to technical /operational reasons and also due to ATC,” the official statement said.