Buddha Air has finally spoken about the incident inside its flight bound for Kathmandu from Nepalgunj Saturday evening informing that Minister for Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Yogesh Bhattarai arrived 20 minutes after the passengers boarded the plane.
Writing to the Director General of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) on Monday, the airline has claimed that the flight was delayed by just 24 minutes that evening.
Self-declared anti-corruption campaigner Gyanendra Shahi had confronted Minister Bhattarai for delaying the flight, and the video of the ruckus inside the plane has gone viral on the social media.
The airline in the letter claims that the flight was already delayed by 15 minutes and rescheduled for 18:40 instead of 18:25 as it took off 23 minutes late from Kathmandu itself. It adds that the passengers boarded the plane at around 18:30 after Minister Bhattarai's aide called the chief of Nepalgunj airport at 18:25 telling that they reached Dhamboji, just over five kilometers away from the airport.
The airliner in the letter implies that the minister's aide had apparently lied about their whereabouts and arrived only at 18:50 much later than what would have taken from Dhamboji.
It informs that the flight took off at 19:04 and attributed the delay after the minister's arrival to the ruckus created by the group led by Shahi. It claims that the flight could take off at that time due to the restraint displayed by the minister and his security.
The incident has created ripples with the commoners slamming Minister Bhattarai for keeping the plane waiting while the CPN cadres have been criticizing Shahi for making a mountain out of a molehill.
There was pandemonium when Shahi organized a press conference on that issue in the Kathmandu Valley on Sunday.
Shahi was taken under police control from the press conference and released on Monday.
The Kaski chapter of youth wing of ruling CPN, meanwhile, has banned entry of Shahi in the district over the incident.
