Air India flight to US delayed

New Delhi

National carrier Air India had to delay the departure of its Newark flight from Mumbai by nearly an hour.

Air India tweeted: Air India clarifies Flight AI 191 of June 29, 2015 was delayed by 57 minutes due to ATC(Air Traffic Control) & some technical/operational reasons.

However PTI quoting sources reported that the flight delayed after it was reported that the Principal Secretary to Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had not carried his passport with valid visa.

PTI reports: “The incident took place yesterday when Fadnavis was leaving on a week-long visit to the US along with his industries Minister Subhash Desai, Chief Secretary Swadheen Kshatriya and Principal Secretary Pravin Pardeshi besides other delegation members. According to sources, Pardeshi was cleared at the check-in but was held back before boarding as the passport he was carrying did not have the valid US visa. Pardeshi had got a valid US visa in his old passport but this was not reflected in the new one which he was carrying. He quickly arranged to bring his old passport which had valid US visa stamp after which he was allowed to proceed to the aircraft.”

When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said that the flight in which Fadnavis was to travel was delayed by 57 minutes for a mix of reasons.

“The flight was delayed by 57 minutes and that too because of operational, technical reasons. Besides, some delay also occurred on account of the ATC,” the spokesperson claimed.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted: The allegation that I forced to delay the flight to New York is false & misleading. I totally deny it.

Inputs from PTI