Only 1 incident of offloading at Leh airport in last 1 yr: Min

Some passengers of the flight from Leh to Delhi, in which Union Minister Kiren Rijiju was accommodated, could not be informed of flight preponement resulting in their delayed arrival at the airport, the government said today.
The incident, involving an Air India flight, that happened on June 23, had created a huge political controversy.
The flight was apparently delayed by about an hour and three members of a family were offloaded from the plane to accommodate Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Rijiju, his aide and, Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Nirmal Singh.
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma said there has been only one incident of offloading occurred at Leh airport in the last one year.

His reply was to a question on whether several incidents have been brought to the notice of government for deboarding of Air India passengers to accommodate VVIPs during the last one year.
Giving details about the Leh-Delhi Air India flight on June 23, Sharma said it was preponed and rescheduled to depart at 1020 hours.

"As per records, one passenger who was scheduled to travel with his family in the same flight, did not get the message of preponement of flight and had reported late as per the revised departure time," he noted.
They "had been made to standby, as a message had been received at 0940 hours that Kiren Rijiju and his PA were to travel to Delhi on this flight. The confusion among passengers occurred due to the preponement of the flight on account of NOTAM (Notice to Airmen), and as some of the passengers could not be contacted due to non-availability of their contact numbers," Sharma said.

NOTAM is generally an advisory issued to pilots alerting them about air operations, including conditions at an airport and about flight safety. It was issued by Air Force, Leh on June 22.
According to Sharma, all passengers whose contact numbers were available were informed and that the check-in process was completed by 0935 hours.
"The boarding cards, however, continued to show the boarding time as per the pre-revised departure time," he added.
Earlier this month, the Civil Aviation Ministry had informed the Prime Minister's Office that Rijiju was not at "fault" for the delay in Air India's Leh-Delhi flight.
The PMO had sought a report from the Ministry on allegations that Rijiju had caused inconvenience to passengers of Air India owing to his VIP status.

After the controversy erupted, Rijiju as well as Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju had apologised for the inconvenience caused to the passengers.