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A technical snag detected in the special aircraft of President Pratibha Patil as the IAF Boeing 737 was being readied for takeoff on Wednesday morning from the NSC Bose International airport in Kolkata delayed her departure to Pune.
According to Rashtrapati Bhavan sources, the pilot of the aircraft noticed that there was a snag in one of the components of the cockpit panel while the plane was taxing on the runway before take off.
The President was informed about it and she was taken to the VIP lounge while the engineers looked at the problem. "The President was supposed to leave for Pune at 10.15 a.m. After inspection of the aircraft it was found fit for the flight. The plane took off for its destination twenty minutes behind schedule," a senior official of Rashtrapati Bhavan told rediff.com.
The President had come to Visva-Bharati university at Santiniketan to participate in the programmes commemorating 150th birth anniversary of Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore.
Governor MK Narayanan, two state ministers and other senior officials of state government were present at the airport to see her off.
With inputs from PTI