Air India: Stuffed 'extra passenger' in cockpit !

In fully loaded flight, Air India stuffed in 3 extra persons
10 Jul 2009, 0825 hrs IST, Saurabh Sinha, TNN

NEW DELHI: 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 in a probe into the aircraft's door falling apart when it started 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. Following this, the passengers were off-loaded and taken to their destination in another aircraft. 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 and two others on the foldable seats where cabin crew sits during take off and landing,'' said sources. The DGCA can now take criminal action against AI for this violation.

The cockpits in modern aircraft have three seats. While two are for the pilot and co-pilot, the third is called a jump seat which is usually vacant.

Since the process of issuing boarding passes is completely computerized, the system stops generating passes once a flight is full. In this case, however, the probe has found that boarding passes were allegedly issued manually to enable the extra passengers to clear the different levels of pre-embarkation security checks.

What's giving the airline sleepless nights is the fact that the DGCA has taken an exceptionally grave view of this `illegality'. ``We have been asked to take action against the commercial department employees who were instrumental in issuing the boarding passes. Five names have been identified in the probe and we have been asked to act against them. Failing this, the DGCA has threatened to file a criminal case against Air India under the Aircraft Rules,'' said a rattled senior airline employee.

AI spokesperson J Bhargava said: ``We are extending full cooperation to DGCA in this probe.''

The airline may have a tough time defending this case as the DGCA probe has said carrying extra passengers was not only against safety procedures but also made the flight ``illegal''.

The airline has been told that in the event of a mishap, it would not have got any compensation due to this gross illegality.

US national with loaded gun held at Chennai airport

Thu, Jun 11 11:59 PM

Chennai, Jun 11 (PTI) A US citizen was arrested at the airport here on charges of carrying a loaded revolver and a security breach came to light after he claimed that he carried the same weapon when he flew in here from New Delhi a fortnight back.

Police said Sellmeyer(58) was detained by CISF personnel when they found the Austrian-made 'Calibre 40' weapon while scanning his baggage as he arrived to board a Mumbai-bound flight and handed him over to airport authorities.

He had come to Chennai last week from New Delhi to undergo treatment at a private hospital. Official sources said that during a joint interrogation by the CISF and airport officals, Sellmeyer reportedly confessed that he had on May 27 travelled from Delhi to Chennai with the same gun on a domestic flight.

The passenger had kept the gun in his baggage which was cleared by the security agencies that time, sources said. Sellmeyer told reporters that he was not aware of the Indian laws that carrying firearms in the flight was an offence.

'I realise it now', he said when reporters asked whether he was aware of the rules. Police said that they recovered 35 bullets and three magazines.

A spokesperson of Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL) when queried about a possible security breach said " we have referred the matter to the concerned security agencies who are ascertaining the facts and will reveal once all details have been obtained." The American Consulate here has been informed about his arrest, officials said, adding the Consulate had confirmed that Sellmeyer was a US citizen.

A consulate official did not anwser reporter's queries. PTI.