Representational Image: An Air India jet on the tarmac
He told a minister that his first duty was to his passengers, only to be accused of being "rude" in a complaint by the politician he took on. This is the story of an Air India Captain who, faced with "VIP muscle flexing" spoke up for his passengers.
Is Captain Rohan Saharan, the commander of the Air India Flight AI 446 delayed by Minister Kiren Rijiju and Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh, being made a fall guy? Exclusive details with NDTV convey the full scale of the trauma at the tarmac, especially for the pilot who had to commandeer the aircraft from the sensitive Indian Air Force managed airport of Leh.
On the morning of June 24, Captain Rohan Saharan reached Leh to find a Notice to Airmen order (NOTEM) that clearly said that the airport runway needed to be resurfaced at 11 am and all flights had to depart no later than 10.35 am. He discovered that he had to ferry back a full flight and there was already chaos at the airport because three passengers with confirmed tickets were not being issued boarding passes.
According to sources, he intervened with the local officials to ensure that these three fliers - an Indian Foreign Service officer and his family were given their designated boarding passes. It is then that he was informed by the local district administration and police officials that "three VIPS" had to be accommodated on the flight.
By now, Captain Saharan was getting anxious. The weather, according to one source, was already "marginal". In lay terms this meant that it had started warming up, and had it got much warmer, he would have been forced to drop the load on the plane and offload passengers. By now, according to eyewitnesses, the three passengers who had been given boarding passes at the last moment were sitting in a coach on the tarmac. They sat there for more than an hour but were not allowed to get onto the plane. Other passengers, agitated about why the plane was not taking off, had begun to abuse the airline for the delay.
Finally, Captain Saharan was given the load and trim sheet to sign - the last piece of paper a pilot signs before take-off - and he ordered the doors to be shut. Despite his best efforts, the three passengers were still sitting in the bus and had been prevented by local officials from boarding the plane. After the doors of the aircraft had been closed, the VIPs arrived and under pressure, the pilot had to open the doors for them.
By now, the passengers on board were even more agitated and started booing the VIPS who had held them up. Captain Saharan pointed to the three offloaded passengers still sitting in the bus on the tarmac and told the two politicians: "We have been delayed by more than one-and-a-half hours because of you. And look at those three people in the bus... they have not been able to take this flight because of you." At this point, according to sources, Mr Rijiju said he had no idea that he had caused this delay. But Nirmal Singh and Captain Saharan got into a fierce argument. Nirmal Singh is reported to have told Captain Saharan: "Who gets offloaded is the airline's problem, not mine."
Nirmal Singh has since then called Captain Saharan "rude" in an official complaint. Both he and Kiren Rijiju have denied that they delayed the flight; they claim the flight had been advanced without notice.
Sources say the pilot is now concerned that he may be punished just for doing his job. "My duty is to my passengers,' he told the ministers.