A private aircraft with Rajasthan’s Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma on board landed on the “wrong” airstrip. Bound for Phalodi, CM Sharma was flying from Delhi and was meant to land at the Air Force Station. Instead, it “mistakenly” landed at the civil airstrip in Phalodi, triggering an investigation into the matter.
Shortly after the pilots realised the mistake, the Falcon 2000 took off to land at its intended destination, as per a TOI report. However, the CM alighted there and flew the aircraft to Jaipur just hours later, according to the report.
The wrong destination was just 5 km from the intended IAF. Following this confusion, the company that owned the charter filed a voluntary complaint with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). As per the officials, there was a case of misidentification of the airstrip, and there were other reports that claimed inadequate briefing of the crew about the vicinity of the two airfields.
More about the private plane
The Dassault Falcon 2000 is a French-made business jet that can carry 8–10 passengers and fly up to 6,000 km. It is a variation of the Falcon 900 trijet and is a smaller twin jet plane. This incident has sparked concern, as an aircraft intended to land at a civilian airstrip mistakenly entering restricted military airspace could lead to legal and safety issues. Additionally, sources suggest that inadequate coordination between military and civil authorities during such landing errors may slow down the response needed to address them.
Bhajan Lal’s visit to Delhi
Meanwhile, this is the second visit of Bhajan Lal Sharma to Delhi in the last five days. Causing a stir in Rajasthan politics, the Rajasthan CM met with Home Minister Amit Shah and Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri during his visit. Reports suggest that the visit hinted at a cabinet expansion that was in place, signalled by the appointment of former BJP president Arun Chaturvedi as the political appointee in the Finance Commission.