Technical snag 'grounds' VIPs

Nedumbassery, Kerala, May 2: About 126 Delhi-bound passengers, including Kerala Governor R L Bhatia, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Justice K S Radhakrishnan and CPI(M) Politbureau member Brinda Karat, were held up at the international airport here for over three hours today as their flight developed a technical snag.

Airport sources said the flight from Thiruvananthapuram developed snag when it was about to take off to Delhi from here at 0730 hrs.

It was brought back to the bay from the runway when the pilot noticed the snag.

However, Air India authorities arranged another flight IC 998, which arrived here from Bahrain and was scheduled to leave to Bangalore. The passengers, including the VIPs, left for Delhi at 1045 hrs.

The grounded flight would be repaired and flown to Bangalore later, the sources said.

UNI