An Air India flight to Hyderabad from Delhi, with a Union Minister and Supreme Court judge onboard, was held up for 45 minutes after a senior Congress leader from Telangana did not turn up for boarding at the scheduled time as she was allegedly busy shopping.
"Last Friday, former Union Minister, and Congress Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chowdhary was travelling to Hyderabad on Air India's Chicago-Delhi-Hyderabad flight AI-126 which was scheduled to take off at 1900 hours. Chowdhary did not turn up on time despite repeated announcements of the final call by the airline staff. She finally turned up after scheduled departure time but not before the pilot had missed his turn in the departure sequence," sources said.
Ms Chowdhary finally turned up at 7.04 pm, they said alleging she was in the shopping area doing shopping and because of her the flight got delayed by some 45 minutes.
Ms Chowdhary, however, denied she was shopping and shot back saying "they have to establish where I went and shopped. What nonsense they are talking?"
The delay to the flight caused by Ms Chowdhary created a lot of resentment among the passengers who took up the issue with Air India authorities, the sources said.
Following this incident, the Civil Aviation Ministry has also instructed Air India to implement an electronic baggage identification system, they said.
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