Plane spotted flying over Tirumala temple

Nellore: Even as Agama pundits have been raising a hue and cry about planes flying over the sanctum sanctorum of the Tirumala shrine, another plane flew above the holy temple on Wednesday. According to the principle of Agama Shastras (traditional holy scriptures), planes cannot fly over the main sanctuary of the temple. The plane was spotted at around 8 am on Wednesday morning. It is believed that it was a Spice Jet flight that left Renigunta airport at 7.45 am for Hyderabad.

On condition of anonymity a passenger on the flight said the Spice Jet flight flew very close to the Ananda Nilayam (holy shrine) few minutes after take off much to the surprise of those travelling to Hyderabad. He said that staff on the flight attributed the reason of flying close to the temple to heavy clouds on the regular route.

Referring to discussions among the passengers on the flight, he suspected that private airlines were opting for the Tirumala route to save fuel. He also said that many passengers expressed displeasure over the incident. Union minister for civil aviation Ashok Gajapati Raju, on a visit to Tirumala in July 2015, had made it clear that the issue of no-fly zone above Tirumala was beyond the limits of his ministry and that such subjects were dealt by the ministry of defence.

TTD assistant vigilance and security officer Y. Ravindra Reddy said that airport officials in Renigunta had told him that they had not given clearance to any flight to fly towards Tirumala’s direction on Wednesday morning. “The officials assured to verify and get back to us,” Mr Reddy said.