Air India Express station manager says the flight from Dubai was delayed due to weather constraints
Higher official is “Unaware of any such incident”
Mangaluru: The Air-India station manager of Mangaluru has cited ‘weather constraints’ for the delay of Dubai-Mangaluru flight on Thursday. Due to the delay, the passengers of Mangaluru bound Air India Express flight IX-814 were made to wait for more than six hours for the flight to take off at the Dubai International Airport on Thursday.
The passengers who had booked their ticket to fly to Mangaluru International Airport on 27 March, and were scheduled to take off from Dubai at 11.40 pm, took off at 6.00 am on 28 March and reached Mangaluru at 10.30 am. A six hours delay from the scheduled time.
The passengers who were made to sit and wait on the flight throughout the night expressed their dissent and anguish over the incident and blamed the in-flight staff for being ‘rude’ to the passengers.
“They did not even provide water for us to drink all this while. We were treated unethically and were kept misinformed about the delay until very late. There was a passenger who was coming to attend the funeral of his brother, they assured him that there will only be one or two hour delay but in reality they delayed us by more than six hours” one of the passenger told Vartha Bharati after the flight landed at Mangaluru International Airport after
“Initially, when we checked in at the airport, we were told that the flight is delayed for one hour. It is normal and we were fine with it. But we were not provided any information about the flight by anyone when it went in excess of the time. We were told at 3.45 that the flight will take off at 5.30 am” he added.
Speaking to Vartha Bharati, the station manager at Air India Express office in Mangaluru added that it was due to weather that the flight was delayed. He said “The flight which went from here, and had to start its return journey from Dubai at 11.40 had to land at Sharjah Airport due to weather constraints. In such a scenario we can’t take the flight immediately to Dubai when the weather is cleared. There is a lot of paperwork that goes in and it takes time. And that is what caused the delay”.
He however refused to comment further on the issue and shared contact of higher authority Mr. Prageesh, based in Kochi and who was authorized to comment on behalf of the Air India Express.
When contacted, Prageesh replied that he was on a ‘long leave’ and he was unaware of any such incident.
“I am not in touch with the office from last few days as I’ am on a long leave. So I don’t have any update regarding the incident” he also failed to provide an alternate contact who can be contacted to get the official statement of the flight operating company.
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Chhattisgarh coal levy scam: Rs 4 crore assets of suspended IAS officer attached
Raipur (PTI): The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has attached properties of Rs 4 crore belonging to suspended IAS officer Sameer Vishnoi, an accused in a coal levy scam, for allegedly amassing assets beyond his known sources of income, officials said.
The EOW had registered a disproportionate assets case against Vishnoi in July 2024, an official release said on Saturday.
During the investigation, the agency identified nine immovable properties, valued at around Rs 4 crore, allegedly acquired through illicit means in the names of Vishnoi’s family members and associated firms, it said.
“An application seeking attachment of these properties was filed before the Special Court under the Prevention of Corruption Act in Raipur. Following a hearing on April 17, the court ordered attachment of all such properties,” the statement said.
Accordingly, the Anti-Corruption Bureau/Economic Offences Wing attached the properties. The attached properties cannot be sold or transferred, it said.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) had earlier provisionally attached five immovable properties linked to Vishnoi in connection with the coal levy scam, it added.
Proceedings are also underway in cases involving other public servants, including action taken in September last year against properties linked to Saumya Chaurasia, who was deputy secretary in the chief minister’s office during the Congress government, the statement said.
Vishnoi, a 2009-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, was first arrested in 2022 by the ED in connection with the alleged coal levy scam. He was among several accused who were granted bail last year by the Supreme Court.
The case refers to an alleged Rs 540 crore racket between July 2020 and June 2022, when an illegal levy of Rs 25 per tonne was being extorted by a cartel involving senior bureaucrats, businessmen, politicians and middlemen for every tonne of coal transported in the state.
