Only crew members were flying when the plane returned to Indore
A technical glitch in one of its engines forced a chartered plane to land again at the international airport here in Madhya Pradesh soon after it had dropped Union minister Nisith Pramanik at the airport and taken off for Delhi, an official said on Wednesday.
The minister was not on board the plane when the technical glitch was noticed by the pilot.
A chartered plane of a private company dropped Mr Pramanik at the Devi Ahilyabai Holkar international airport in Indore on Tuesday, said director in charge, airport, Prabodh Sharma.
"After dropping the minister at the airport, the plane took off for Delhi at 6.40 pm. The plane had reached about 50 nautical miles (about 92 km) from Indore when the pilot realised that one of its two engines had developed some glitch. The pilot landed the plane at the airport again at 7:19 pm after taking permission from the Air Traffic Control (ATC),” he said.
Mr Sharma denied it was an emergency lading. He said the pilot landed the plane in a normal manner.
"Pramanik was not on board of the flight when it returned for landing. Only crew members were flying when the plane returned to Indore due to a technical fault," he added.
Officials said that Mr Pramanik, who is also MoS for Sports, came to Indore on Tuesday evening to inaugurate the 71st Junior National Basketball Championship.
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