A plane carrying chief minister Mamata Banerjee from Varanasi to Calcutta was caught in turbulence on Friday afternoon, sources in Calcutta airport said.

Mamata suffered a waist injury caused by a steep climb-down the flight was forced to make to cope with the turbulence, sources close to her said.

“The flight was caught in mid-air turbulence around 50km northwest of Calcutta,” an airport official said.

The pilot of the Falcon aircraft, hired by the state government for the chief minister, had contacted air traffic control when the turbulence started, the official said.

“The ATC directed the pilot to go for a climb-down from 7,000ft to 2,000ft,” he said.

The flight landed safely at Calcutta airport around 3.30pm, he added.