Amid heavy rain pounding the South Korean capital since Tuesday evening, the President’s departure from Seoul Air Base to the Mongolian capital was delayed by nearly two and a half hours on Wednesday till the problem was rectified for the aircraft to take off at 1:54 pm Seoul time.
The continuous downpour not only made the visibility poor, but also forced the South Korean Government’s top dignitaries to give a modest ceremonial sendoff within the Seoul Air Base terminal building to the Indian President at the end of her three-day visit to the country.
However, things turned somewhat worrisome shortly after Patil emplaned the Air India special aircraft. Just when the flight was ready for take off, a technical snag was noticed in both its wings, apparently due to excessive wetting by the heavy rain. There was no official word on what caused the snag, prolonging the anxiety for all those, including the Indian media contingent aboard the plane.
Initially, a Rashtrapati Bhavan officials in the team said it was a visibility problem. Shortly later, the aircraft commander announced that the flight would be delayed by 90 minutes due to a technical snag, which was being attended to by the engineers. The delay time was utilised to serve lunch on board to everyone, even as Korean ground staff worked at the wings on the tarmac. The aircraft later took off from Seoul and to everyone’s relief touched down at the Chinggis Khan International Airport at Ulaanbaatar, the mountainous capital of Mongolia.
On arrival, Patil was received at the tarmac by B Ganbold, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Executive Asian Department and other top Mongolian Government officials.
Two young Mongolian women attired in their traditional costume gave a ceremonial welcome to the Indian President.
Patil’s visit to this country is only the second by an Indian President in 23 years since former president R Venkataraman’s visit in 1988, official sources said. India is keen to impart greater momentum to bilateral trade and cooperation with Mongilia, which is now a democracy, as it has two key minerals, coal and uranium, required for power infrastructure development back home.
During her three-day visit to Mongolia, Patil will hold bilateral talks with the country’s President Tsakhia Elbegdorj.