Kochi: Kerala Governor and former Chief Justice of India P Sathasivam got a rather nasty lesson in punctuality when he failed to board his Air India flight from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram last night because he arrived late at the airport.
Sathasivam was reportedly denied entry into the Air India flight because he arrived just minutes before the flight was scheduled for take-off.
According to Air India officials, the flight - AI 048 - was to take off at 9.20 pm but was delayed to 11.40 pm. When the flight arrived at 10.57 pm, the Governor's team was informed, airline sources later said.
All passengers were on board by 11.24 pm. "We waited till 11.30 for any update on the Governor. With no update, at 11.32 pm, we started push back process. The governor arrived at around 11.32 pm," an official said.
The governor's house says he reached the tarmac at 11.28 pm as he enjoys the privilege of boarding directly from there. However, the ladder was pulled up and the plane prepped for take-off.
Although Raj Bhavan described leaving the Governor behind a "serious mistake", Air India sources said the flight left on time as part of its policy of carrying out operations on time.
Flights are not delayed waiting for any passenger, including VVIPs, they said.
Sources at Raj Bhavan faulted Air India for a “communication gap” between the flight crew and the ground staff that resulted in the faux pas.
According to them, the Governor reached Kochi airport at around 11.30 pm as per advice by the district administration official, who was coordinating the travel arrangements there.
“As per the advice, the Governor was required to reach the airport before 11.40 pm but when he reached the airport the flight had already taken off at 11.30 PM,” PTI quoted Raj Bhavan sources as saying.
Meanwhile, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that he would enquire about the incident.
(With PTI inputs)
