BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's aircraft had to be diverted to Jharsuguda on Monday afternoon after it could not land at Biju Patnaik International Airport (BPIA) in the state capital due to inclement weather.
Naveen had flown to Nuapada with senior BJD leader VK Pandian for election campaign. He was returning to Bhubaneswar when the city was struck by Nor'wester winds forcing his aircraft to be diverted to Jharsuguda.
After landing at Veer Surendra Sai (VSS) airport in Jharsuguda, Pandian posted a video online mentioning that the chief minister was fine.
"We could not land in Bhubaneswar due to bad weather. We landed in Jharsuguda and CM is fine. We are now returning," said Pandian in the video in which Naveen could also be seen.
As the weather improved, Naveen landed in the capital city after 5.30 pm. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said gusty wind speed reaching 91 km/ph prevailed over Bhubaneswar on Monday afternoon due to thunderstorm activity.
BPIA sources said the aircraft carrying Naveen continued to circle over Bhubaneswar city for over 20 minutes before being diverted to Jharsuguda at about 3.30 pm. Two commercial flights also could not land at BPIA due to the bad weather.
"An IndiGo flight coming from Shamshabad could not land and was diverted to Ranchi at about 3.28 pm. Similarly, an Air Akasa flight from Bengaluru to Bhubaneswar continued to circle over the city for about 15 minutes and was later diverted to Kolkata at about 3 pm," said BPIA Director, Prasanna Pradhan.