The heavy rain on Sunday that otherwise kept the city life scattered for larger half of the day, also came as a blessing in disguise for Debashish Banerjee’s family and friends as they got another evening to spend with him. Banerjee could not take a test flight of his plane due to downpour and bad weather conditions after it was repaired before advancing his journey back to USA. Now he is supposed to start his return journey on Monday morning, which has Kolkata, Chitgaon (Bangladesh) and Malaysia as initial destinations.
“According to engineers who have attended the plane, now it is safe to carry the journey forward. I must thank Caption SP Sinha (Chief Pilot, Civil Aviation Department, Jharkhand) and his entire team that worked for around six hours to get the problems resolved. I wish to thank State Government for its support and help that it has offered yet in making my journey happy and successful,” said Banerjee before getting ready for test fly on Sunday. He waited for almost an hour for a test flight sitting in the plane. But visibility level near airport didn’t allow him to do so.
By the time he got clearance for a test flight from Air Traffic Control (ATC) at Birsa Munda Airport, the dark clouds covered the sky and a downpour thereafter forced him to postpone test flight. Now as the plane is safe to fly, he is supposed to take off around 9.30 on Monday morning and test flight is also supposed to be done at that time itself.
Banerjee had left for Kolkata on Saturday evening last week itself. However, his single engine two-seater Sesna plane acquired some technical glitches immediately after he took off and he had to ask for an emergency landing at Birsa Munda Airport within a couple of minutes. It had flown only around three nautical miles before the problem occurred.