Police Entry Into Kolkata ATC To Monitor Mamata Flight Sparks Row

Bengal’s police force, ever eager to please the mercurial Mamata Banerjee, broke the law and entered the Air Traffic Control (ATC) room at Kolkata airport to monitor the Chief Minister’s flight from Bagdogra to the city on Friday evening (16 March). The presence of two police officers inside the ATC room was not only intimidating, but also in violation of Directorate General of Civil Aviation and air safety norms that expressly prohibit the presence of anyone other than licensed ATC operators inside the ATC room.

The two police officers were deputed by the Bidhannagar Police Commissionerate (Kolkata airport falls under its jurisdiction) to ensure the Chief Minister’s flight was accorded priority landing. They were there for the entire duration of the nearly hour-long flight from Bagdogra to Kolkata. According to some ATC operators, the two officers were breathing down the necks of the ATC personnel, asking questions and repeatedly directing them to ensure that an Air Asia flight carrying Banerjee was not delayed for landing for any reason.

“It (the presence of the two police officers) was highly disconcerting. They kept on asking foolish questions and demanded that they monitor the flight path. And once the flight (which appears as a blip on monitors in the ATC room) started its descent to Kolkata, they started ordering us to clear it for landing right away. Fortunately, there were no flights in the landing sequence before that Air Asia flight, otherwise there would have been a scene at the ATC room,” an ATC officer told Swarajya.

This Friday was the second time in less than a month that cops entered the ATC tower to monitor the Chief Minister’s flight. Four cops – three without valid entry passes – had entered the ATC tower on 23 February to monitor the flight carrying Banerjee from Bagdogra. The Airports Authority of India (AAI) had taken up the matter with the state government and warned against a repeat. The AAI had told senior state officials then that the entry of police into ATC tower amounted to a violation of air safety rules. But the warning has had no effect.

A senior officer of Bidhannagar Commissionerate blithely explained that since the security of the Bengal Chief Minister is concerned, the state police can do whatever it wants to. “The CM does not like the aircraft she is travelling in to hover over Kolkata unnecessarily. She is a busy person and gets irked by such waste of time. We have to bear the brunt once she lands. So it is better to take precautions and ensure that her flight gets priority in landing,” he said.

As for violating air safety and DGCA rules, he nonchalantly replied: “It is for the DGCA and other regulatory bodies to alter such rules. If the ATC has nothing to hide and does not indulge on foul play (by intentionally delaying the landing of a flight carrying a VIP like the CM), what objection can it have to police presence in the ATC tower?”

On 9 February, the landing of an IndiGo flight on which the Chief Minister was returning to Kolkata (once again from Bagdogra) was delayed by 19 minutes and it circled over the city a few times. There were other aircraft before it in the landing sequence. The Chief Minister was late for a meeting with Hardik Patel that day and she vented her ire on senior police and airport officials who were at the airport to receive her. The next day, police entered the ATC tower to question ATC officers and demanded to see the logs, of which they understood little.

In November 2016, a miscommunication between the pilot of an IndiGo flight from Patna to Kolkata that the Chief Minister was on, resulted in ambulances and fire engines lining the tarmac. The ATC officer handling that flight had misunderstood the pilot and assumed that the plane was running low on fuel and, hence, activated the emergency protocol. Banerjee, not quite understanding what had happened, had alleged a “conspiracy” to eliminate her. Trinamool Members of Parliament even raised the issue in Parliament and the state police undertook a probe into it. That probe got nowhere after cops realised the matter was too technical for them to handle. Since then, Kolkata airport authorities have been on tenterhooks every time the Bengal Chief Minister has landed or taken off from Kolkata. Even though none other than aircraft carrying the President and the Prime Minister of the country get priority in landing and take-offs, Banerjee appears to have been insisting on the same VVIP status for the flights she is on.

Friday’s incident has left the ATC officers fuming. They want the AAI to take immediate action. “If this happens again, there could be a very unpleasant scene inside the ATC tower. We have worked in other airports also and no other ATC faces such a ridiculous situation. CMs of other states also fly and their flights also get delayed in taking off or landing. But no one raises such a ruckus. This is totally unacceptable. An ATC officer’s job is a very delicate one ridden with tension since we have to direct so many aircraft safely on the skies. Having some clueless cops peering over our shoulders and asking ridiculous questions or giving us orders is completely unacceptable. It can endanger flights and put hundreds of lives at risk,” said the ATC officer.

There was another reason for the police’s alacrity on Friday. The Chief Minister’s departure from Bagdogra had already been delayed by one and a half hours and police officials accompanying her there told their counterparts in Kolkata that Banerjee was in a foul mood. The Chief Minister and her entourage of seven were supposed to take a 4.35pm IndiGo flight from Bagdogra to Kolkata. But the aircraft (flying with passengers from Kolkata) could not land at Bagdogra even after two attempts due to sudden strong tailwinds and was diverted to Guwahati. Banerjee and her team could not be accommodated in a subsequent SpiceJet flight to Kolkata since all seats on it were booked. She could be put only on the Air Asia flight that took off from Bagdogra at 6pm. Banerjee was in a bad mood because of this delay and had to spend 90 minutes at the VIP lounge of Bagdogra airport. Thus, cops in Kolkata didn’t want to take any chances and hastened to ensure that their political master’s flight lands without delay in Kolkata.

Also Read: What Kolkata Airport Authorities Have To Face When Mamata Banerjee’s Flight Queues For Landing