Off the wing

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's project-inaugurating spree across the state by helicopter unwittingly fell foul of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) rules. DGCA does not allow pilots to fly beyond eight hours. When the chief minister landed at the north Karnataka town of Koppal, about 400 km from Bangalore, and finished inaugurating a project there, the pilot said his duty time was up and declined to fly further, leaving Siddaramaiah in limbo. But there were many more projects left to inaugurate in Bangalore, so, the chief minister drove to the nearest airstrip that belonged to a steel company and commandeered an airplane to fly him to back to the state capital.