An Air India flight to Newark from&nbsp;Mumbai was delayed by nearly an hour after it was reported&nbsp;that an aide of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis&nbsp;travelling with him had not carried his passport with valid US&nbsp;visa.
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"The allegation that I forced delay of the flight to Newark is false and misleading," said Fadnavis.
When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said that the&nbsp;flight AI-191 in which Fadnavis was to travel was delayed by&nbsp;57 minutes for a mix of reasons.&nbsp;
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2014/nov/Air-India.jpg" alt="" width="650" height="333" /> Picture for representational purposes
"The flight was delayed by 57 minutes and that too&nbsp;because of operational, technical reasons. Besides, some&nbsp;delay also occurred on account of the ATC," the spokesperson&nbsp;claimed in response to questions.
The incident took place yesterday when Fadnavis was&nbsp;leaving on a week-long visit to the US along with his&nbsp;industries Minister Subhash Desai, Chief Secratary Swadheen&nbsp;Kshatriya and Principal Secretary Pravin Pardeshi besides&nbsp;other delegation members.
According to sources, Pardeshi was cleared at the&nbsp;check-in but was held back before boarding as the passport he&nbsp;was carrying did not have the valid US visa.&nbsp;Sources said that Pardeshi had got a valid US visa in his&nbsp;old passport but this was not reflected in the new one which&nbsp;he was carrying. He quickly arranged to bring his old passport&nbsp;which had valid US visa stamp after which he was allowed to&nbsp;proceed to the aircraft,they said.
Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan&nbsp;demanded an inquiry into the delay of the flight to US.&nbsp;Chavan also trained his guns on authorities, saying,&nbsp;"Air India officials have flouted rules under pressure."
"The PM must take action. I don't know if he will act&nbsp;against Fadnavis," Chavan said.
"The PM or civil aviation minister must order an inquiry&nbsp;into the whole affair. The reputation of the country is at&nbsp;stake," he added.&nbsp;
MPCC president Ashok Chavan said, "The issue is very&nbsp;serious. Over one and a half hours were wasted just because an&nbsp;officer forgot to bring his passport. There should be an in&nbsp;depth inquiry and action should be taken against the guilty."

An Air India flight to Newark from&nbsp;Mumbai was delayed by nearly an hour after it was reported&nbsp;that an aide of Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis&nbsp;travelling with him had not carried his passport with valid US&nbsp;visa

AI flight to US delayed as Maha CM aide 'forgot' visa document

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AI flight to US delayed as Maha CM aide 'forgot' visa document

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