Night storm strikes Calcutta, disrupts flights and delays Union home minister Amit Shah
Telegraph | 29 March 2026
The squall season has arrived, as have the elections.
Around midnight on Friday, a thunderstorm struck Calcutta and neighbouring districts, disrupting flights and delaying the aircraft carrying Union home minister Amit Shah by nearly an hour.
“The plane from New Delhi was supposed to land in Calcutta at 12.25am on Saturday. However, it was delayed because of bad weather. The flight eventually landed at 1.20am,” an airport official said. Shah was on board a 12-seater Dassault Falcon aircraft.
A squall struck North 24-Parganas around 12.30am, with Dum Dum recording a peak wind speed of 61kmph, a Met official said. The rain and winds forced schedule changes for several flights.
A flydubai flight was diverted to Dhaka at 1.03am, an IndiGo flight from Hyderabad was diverted to Nagpur at 1.22am and an Air India Express flight from Bengaluru was diverted to Lucknow at 1.33am. A Thai Airways flight from Bangkok was also diverted to Dhaka at 1.47am, airport sources said.
Such stormy conditions often pose challenges for pilots. On Thursday afternoon, a strong spell of rain, winds and a brief hailstorm struck Dum Dum and neighbouring areas.
Thursday’s storm also disrupted flight operations, including forcing the aircraft carrying chief minister Mamata Banerjee to hover for over an hour while returning from Andal.
The directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA) on Friday issued guidelines for the “carriage of Central, State and other dignitaries by aircraft”.
“The aircraft operator shall ensure that flight operations are in accordance with the Aircraft Rules and instruction/order/circular issued from time to time and flight crew are not subjected to undue pressure for undertaking a flight which may impact safety of operations,” the DGCA communication said.
“Any last-minute changes to the planned flight due to VIP requirements should be coordinated through the Organisation’s management only, and not directly with the crew,” it added.
Thunderstorms are not ruled out on Sunday, the Met office in Calcutta said.