Liz Hurley-Arun Nayar wedding guests held up inside chartered plane

New Delhi: Some 135 international guests for the Liz Hurley-Arun Nayar wedding were held up for over two-and-a-half hours inside a chartered plane at Mumbai domestic airport on March 7 for lack of clearance as the general manager, air traffic control, was at lunch and refused to be disturbed, industry sources said.
The flight carrying celebrities from around the world was supposed to take off for Jodhpur at 1.30 pm, but was not given clearance, though no specific reason was assigned. The airport executive director requested the GM to let the flight leave, but without success.
According to a source, the GM insisted that the Director General of Civil Aviation Kanu Gohain should call him and personally give the direction to allow the flight to take off. The flight was finally cleared for take off at 4 pm after Gohain called the GM at least four times and convinced him to allow the plane to leave.
However, the Airports Authority of India, in response to an FE query, said the GM could not have been involved as he was not responsible for giving clearance and that the delay must have been on the part of the chartered flight operator. AAI officials also added that any scheduled aircraft waiting for clearance would have had to be cleared first.
10/03/07 Atreyee Dev Roy/Financial Express

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Categories: Airports Mar 2007, General Aviation Mar 2007