What Kolkata Airport Authorities Have To Face When Mamata Banerjee’s Flight Queues For Landing

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s impatience and propensity to fly off the handle at the slightest provocation have been causing a lot of anguish to officials – both of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) and private airlines – at Kolkata airport. Her insistence on the aircraft she is on board being accorded priority in landing and her adverse response in case that demand is not met are affecting air traffic operations.

Banerjee has long been known for her impatience, short temper, and irritability, especially if things don’t run according to her script. Thus, while flying in to Kolkata, she turns irate if the aircraft she is in has to hover over the airport and is not accorded priority in landing. She has been known to vent her ire on airline cabin crew, who are always tense and jittery when the Bengal Chief Minister is on board.

The latest such incident happened a week ago when she was returning from a trip to Darjeeling. The IndiGo flight she was on had to hover over Kolkata city for a few minutes due to congestion in the air space over the airport. The flight landed four minutes after its scheduled time of arrival. This was reason enough for Banerjee to order her pliant police to start a probe against IndiGo and the Kolkata airport authorities!

Airport authorities told Swarajya that the cause of congestion was that only the secondary runway, which can handle half of the landings and take-offs as compared to the primary runway, was operational at the time. The primary runway had been closed temporarily for urgent maintenance work. Banerjee’s IndiGo flight was third in the landing sequence; the first two had to hover mid-air for longer periods.

In addition, the Kolkata airport authorities had notified all airlines about a possible delay in landing and, accordingly, the captain had made a mid-flight announcement warning passengers about it. Officials at the Kolkata airport – those belonging to the AAI, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and airlines – say that a four-minute delay in landing or arrival is not considered a delay at all.

The Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate (the Kolkata airport falls under its jurisdiction) started a suo moto case and ordered the Kolkata airport authorities to submit details of all flights that landed in Kolkata between 4pm and 6pm on that day. The police also asked IndiGo to present its version of the delay. This, say airport officials, is unnecessary and a form of intimidation. “This is not the first time this has happened. The police probe is totally unjustified and does not happen anywhere else in the country. It is intimidating and we feel the institution of a case by the police is just to get a stern message across to us that the Bengal CM’s flights should be accorded top priority in landing,” said a senior officer of the AAI. His feelings are shared by airlines executives also.

There already exists an unofficial advisory to air traffic control (ATC) officers to accord priority to flights carrying the Bengal Chief Minister as far as possible. They have been told to clear a flight carrying Banerjee for landing without any delay and not to place it behind other flights in the landing sequence. This unofficial advisory was issued about a year ago after another outcry over a similar delay in landing in late November 2016. That time, Banerjee flew into a rage because the landing of the IndiGo flight she was on from Patna to Kolkata was delayed by 13 minutes. And due to a miscommunication between the pilot and the ATC, the latter had accorded the aircraft emergency landing status and lined up fire-fighting engines and ambulances along the runway. The sight of these emergency service vehicles had alarmed Banerjee.

High drama followed the incident. The Trinamool cried murder plot and said the IndiGo aircraft, despite being low on fuel, was deliberately refused permission to land early. Banerjee’s loyal ministers and members of Parliament (MPs), doubling over to please her, made ludicrous charges that the Union government had conspired with the Kolkata ATC and airport authorities to “eliminate” Banerjee. Their logic: since the Chief Minister had emerged as the most vocal critic of demonetisation, there was a deep conspiracy to eliminate her!

Trinamool MPs created a ruckus in Parliament alleging that Banerjee’s life was endangered as the aircraft she was on was denied priority landing despite being low on fuel. Congress MPs added to the din and their leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the aircraft carrying Banerjee ought to have been given priority over other aircraft. Union Civil Aviation Minister ordered a probe by the DGCA. Six pilots (two of IndiGo, and two each of two other airlines that had also reported they were low on fuel) were taken off duty. Bidhannagar Police registered a first information report alleging the flight had “behaved dubiously” in mid-air! The police also filed a slew of charges including murder and criminal conspiracy against unnamed persons.

It ultimately emerged that there was a congestion in air and many aircraft were in the queue for landing. The pilots of the aircraft that Banerjee was in had informed ATC that the aircraft had “eight minutes of extra holding fuel over Kolkata before commencing diversion to planned alternate airport”. This is standard operating procedure and what it meant was that if permission to land within the next eight minutes was not given, the aircraft would have had to divert itself to the alternate airport (Bhubaneshwar). Thus, the aircraft was not running low on fuel.

“At the time of landing, every aircraft has to have enough fuel to divert itself to the alternate airport. This is a standard practice all over the world and the stipulation is there to deal with an unforeseen circumstance. If, in case, just as an aircraft is about to touchdown at an airfield there arises a grave emergency at the airport and the aircraft can’t land anymore, it should be able to fly away and land at the alternate airfield,” explained an AAI officer.

The ATC in Kolkata misunderstood the IndiGo pilots’ communication and assumed that the aircraft had only eight minutes of fuel left and so the ATC activated the emergency services. Before the IndiGo pilots’ communication to the ATC, pilots of an Air India and a SpiceJet flight had also reported running low on fuel and were thus given priority in the landing sequence. Banerjee’s IndiGo flight, thus, had to hover in the air for some time. ATC officers say pilots play truant at times and falsely report low fuel levels to get priority in the landing sequence.

Since this incident, the Kolkata airport authorities have informally advised the air traffic control to clear any aircraft Banerjee is on for landing right away and not place it behind other aircraft in the landing sequence. This puts the air traffic control under added pressure, say airport officials. And this pressure to accord priority to Banerjee’s flights may also put other aircraft at risk. “Such pressures and police intimidation are unhealthy. No other politician in the country throws tantrums or kicks up a row if a flight he or she is on has to hover in airspace and is not cleared for landing immediately. Everyone understands this. But in Kolkata, the police may file a case against you,” said the AAI officer.