Venkaih Naidu escapes mid-air snag for ninth time

For Information and Broadcasting Minister Venkaih Naidu, flying has always been an adventurous affair. When the chartered aircraft carrying him and BJP chief Amit Shah developed an engine problem mid-air and returned to Delhi on Wednesday, it was the ninth time that Naidu has escaped such an eventuality unscathed.

Naidu has had several emergency landings either while on copter or on aircraft, beginning 2000 when the Vajpayee government was in power. These snags have occurred in Jharkhand, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Chennai, Indore and Hyderabad.

The reasons varied from fire in one of the engines of an aircraft, failure of his helicopter to land because of poor visibility, straying off the helipad or hydraulic failure, etc.

However, a BJP leader commented that in the end it has always turned out well.