Maharashtra: Eknath Shinde's chartered flight delay helps kidney patient's timely airlift to Mumbai

A chartered flight pilot's initial refusal to fly with Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde from Jalgaon to Mumbai on Friday night helped save a kidney patient's timely airlift to Mumbai, reported Hindustan Times.

According to the report, due to the pilot's initial refusal to fly owing to the breach of scheduled flying hours, authorities were able to airlift a kidney failure patient from Jalgaon who reached Mumbai in time for her transplant.

The HT reported that the flight eventually took off after fresh permission was taken, as the pilot pointed out the delay in scheduled flying and the rules of the duty hours for the pilots.

The Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister was in Jalgaon to attend the ‘Palkhi Yatra’ of Sant Muktai in Muktainagar on Friday evening. Due to his delayed schedule, he was late in arriving at the Jalgaon airport.

Later Gulabrao Patil, water supply and sanitation minister, and Shiv Sena leader said, as HT quoted, that the pilot did not refuse to fly. He added that there was some technical problem related to his duty hours delaying the flying.

“He had completed eight hours and 45 minutes of nine hours of his duty hours, and said he could not fly without the permission from the authorities. He then spoke to his company, which sought the permissions from the authorities. After the permission, Shinde saheb flew by 9.45pm from Jalgaon airport,” HT quoted Patil as saying.

Patient airlifted:

Gulabrao Patil even stated that the delay in take off of Shinde's flight helped the administration airlift a kidney patient from Jalgaon. “The patient had to be admitted to a Mumbai hospital by midnight for a kidney transplant. The patient had missed her flight and would have missed her claim over kidney in case of delay in hospital admission. The delay to Shinde proved a 'blessing in disguise',” he said.

Citing the reason for Shinde's delay in reaching airport, Patil said that Shinde arrived late in Jalgaon in the afternoon because of delay to take off from Pune owing to bad weather.

The statement issued by Shinde's office, has stated that the delay helped a kidney patient in getting her admitted to the Mumbai office. “The relatives of the patients contacted Shinde through water resources minister Girish Mahajan for the airlifting of the patient Sheetal Borade."

“Shinde asked two of his party workers to stayback to accommodate Borade and her husband on the flight. Shinde not only took them on the board, but also asked to arrange a special ambulance at the Mumbai airport,” it reads.

Girish Mahajan said that the pilot had a health related issue and was convinced after they spoke to the company that owned the aircraft.

Borade family has thanked Shinde for the timely help, added Hindustan Times.