How a 'business trip' to Bangkok by ex-Maharashtra minister's son led to mid-air chaos
By : Sandhya
In a dramatic turn of events, a chartered flight from Pune heading to Bangkok was asked to return to the Maharashtra city, with the chaotic incident unfolding on the night of February 10.
The plane was taking three passengers for a ‘business trip’ to Bangkok. The group included Rushiraj Sawant, whose father Tanaji Sawant is a politician in Maharashtra, and two friends of Rushiraj. The aircraft was ordered to turn around after Tanaji Sawant intervened, suspecting that his son had been ‘kidnapped.' A former minister, Tanaji Sawant is a member of the Maharashtra deputy chief minister Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena.
The pilots initially thought that the order to return was a ‘hoax.’ However, they complied after confirming it with aviation authorities.At the time, the plane had already crossed Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, a Union Territory in the Bay of Bengal.