Senior BJP leader M. Venkaiah Naidu’s tryst with emergency landing situation continued on Saturday also. The Air India flight which Mr. Naidu boarded in New Delhi for his onward journey to Hyderabad on Saturday developed a technical snag and was forced to return to Delhi. The senior BJP leader told The Hindu he boarded the flight at 6.50 a.m. and the flight took off soon after.
“It was after 25 minutes after the take-off, there was this weird rattling sound. The flight’s altitude dropped significantly,” he recalled, adding it appeared that the flight was on its way back.
“We did not understand as to why the flight was going back. The airline crew informed us later that there was some technical snag — one of the engines went off,” he said.
This was the ninth such instance when Mr. Naidu had to undergo the trauma of a near air disaster.
“I was not worried in the last eight incidents. But I was a lot disturbed by Saturday’s incident because there was sudden drop in the altitude and the flight was going down fast,” he recounted the harrowing experience.
The pilots managed to land the aircraft safely and Mr. Naidu took another (9.50 a.m.) flight to Hyderabad.
