Rajya Sabha MP and Dubai-based businessman PV Abdul Wahab is getting ready to move a privilege motion in Parliament against a pilot of state carrier Air India who forced him to disembark from a plane in Kozhikode. ( Watch: Pilot punished for doing his job? )
The Rajya Sabha MP said he was forced to get off the Kozhikode-Kochi flight while he was en route to Dubai Monday morning after an argument with the flight captain Rajat Rana. ( Watch: ICPA comes out in support of Rana )
"I will take up the matter with my chairman (of Rajya Sabha) and move a privilege motion against the pilot," Wahab said on Tuesday.
According to Wahab, he had reached well on time to catch the flight, that was running 20 minutes late from Bahrain, but got a little late while being taken from the VIP lounge at the airport to the aircraft.
"I was at the airport by 7:55 am for the flight which was scheduled to leave Kozhikode at 8:55 am. The flight, which was coming from Bahrain, was itself delayed by around 20 minutes.
"By the time I was taken (from the VIP lounge) to the aircraft, it was a little late. The captain, Rajat Rana, got into an argument with the duty manager who was accompanying me," he said.
Wahab said that when he tried to intervene the pilot said it was none of his business, and insisted he would not take off if the parliamentarian was on board.
Subsequently, Wahab was offloaded put on another Air India flight from Kozhikode to Dubai.
"I think the pilot was trying to make up the 20-minute delay (from Bahrain) which was why this incident happened," he said.
Sources, however, claimed that the take-off was delayed until the MP and his kin turned up some 15 minutes past the scheduled departure time.
Airport sources added that the angry pilot summoned the local airport manager. The manager entered the aircraft with the MP, and pulled him up. The pilot then declared that the plane would not take off until the MP removed himself.
Rajat Rana, the pilot of the plane, maintains that he was only safe guarding the passenger's interest.
"I have not done anything wrong in deplaning MP Wahab. The decision to order Wahab off the plane was in passenger interest. However, I cannot comment without clearances," he said.
Meanwhile, Kozhikode airport manager Srinivasan Rajachandrasekhar has been reported as saying that an investigation would be launched into the incident.
"There was an argument between Abdul Wahab and Captain Rajat Rana. In the end, Abdul Wahab volunteered to get down from the flight. Air India will launch an investigation into the incident," he was quoted as saying from Kozhikode.
Elected to the Rajya Sabha on an Indian Union Muslim League ticket in 2004, Wahab is one of the richest and most well known NRI entrepreneurs in the Gulf with interests ranging from real estate to shipping to hospitality.
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