Turbulent take-off for Jet’s US flight

Mumbai: Perhaps the weather, technology and fate had conspired against the six passengers who were to travel on Jet Airway’s maiden Mumbai-Newark flight 9W 228 via Brussels on Sunday morning but missed it narrowly.
While Bollywood personalities Javed Akhtar and Shabana Azmi and high-ranking Jet officials were welcoming the passengers to the well-decorated international Mumbai airport, the unlucky six were sweating it out inside a Delhi-Mumbai flight. The flight, which took off from Delhi at 8.30 pm, was diverted to Ahmedabad at around midnight after hovering over Mumbai for some time. The reason, the commander later announced, was congestion in Mumbai airspace and lack of fuel.
Scheduled to land in Mumbai at 10.25 pm, the flight finally got there at 2.30 a.m. after a fuel stop. The six passengers just about managed to watch the inaugural flight take off from the runway — without them.
All of them took the next day’s flight.
As per regulations, a passenger needs to report three hours prior to the departure of an international flight.
07/08/07 Lalatendu Mishra/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Jet Airways Aug 2007, New Aug 2007