In these recessionary times, airlines globally are operating on half-empty seats. But Air India, which is passing through its worst ever financial crisis, is in fresh trouble for allegedly carrying extra passengers on a fully loaded flight. What adds to the irony is that the excess passengers were discovered following a probe into the aircraft's door falling apart when it stated moving while attached to an aerobridge!
The Mumbai-Mangalore flight, IC 179, being operated on a 172-seater Airbus A-321, had damaged its door in Mumbai on May 5, 2009. Fallowing this, the paasengers were offloaded & taken to their destination in another aicraft. A probe by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) into the incident has found that the aircraft had three passengers more than its seating capacity.
" Of these three, one woman passenger was accommodated in the cockpit & two others on the foldable seats where cabin crew sits during take off & landing," said dources. DGCA can take criminal action against AI for this violation.
The cockpits in modern aicraft have three seats. While two are for the pilot & co-pilot, the third, called a jump seat, is usually vacant.
Dangerous Lapse
* Packing in more passengers on board a flight than the number of seats violates basic principles of air safety.
* DGCA report says carrying extra passengers was not only against safety procedures but also made flight "illegal".
* Airline has been told that in the event of a mishap, it would not have got any compensation due to this illegality.
The Mumbai-Mangalore flight, IC 179, being operated on a 172-seater Airbus A-321, had damaged its door in Mumbai on May 5, 2009. Fallowing this, the paasengers were offloaded & taken to their destination in another aicraft. A probe by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) into the incident has found that the aircraft had three passengers more than its seating capacity.
" Of these three, one woman passenger was accommodated in the cockpit & two others on the foldable seats where cabin crew sits during take off & landing," said dources. DGCA can take criminal action against AI for this violation.
The cockpits in modern aicraft have three seats. While two are for the pilot & co-pilot, the third, called a jump seat, is usually vacant.
Dangerous Lapse
* Packing in more passengers on board a flight than the number of seats violates basic principles of air safety.
* DGCA report says carrying extra passengers was not only against safety procedures but also made flight "illegal".
* Airline has been told that in the event of a mishap, it would not have got any compensation due to this illegality.
No comments:
Post a Comment