Late! Kerala Governor misses Air India flight as pilot refuses to wait

New Delhi: Kerala Governor P Sathasivam missed his flight to Thiruvananthapuram because he was late in arriving at the airport in Kochi last night.

Raj Bhavan described leaving the Governor behind was a "serious mistake" but Air India sources said the flight left on time as part of its policy of carrying out operations on time. Flights are not delayed waiting for any passenger, including VVIPs, they said.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said that he would enquire about the incident.

Sources at Raj Bhavan said that it was a "serious mistake" on the part of Air India as there was some communication gap between the flight crew and the ground staff.

According to them, the Governor reached Kochi airport at around 1130 pm as per advice by the district administration official, who was coordinating the travel arrangements there.

As per the advice, the Governor was required to reach the airport before 1140 pm but when he reached the airport the flight had already taken off at 1130 pm, the sources said.

They also claimed that Air India's ground staff did not communicate with the flight's pilot on the Governor being already at the airport.

"The pilot got to know that the Governor was to be on board the flight only after the aircraft had pushed back for take off," the sources claimed.

Sathasivam was to take the flight from Kochi to Thiruvananthapuram on Tuesday.