An incident was reported earlier on Tuesday that an air passenger had opened the emergency door of an Indigo flight resulting in panic among others on the flight in December.
A report by The News Minute (TNM) revealed that the alleged passenger was Bengaluru South Lok Sabha MP, Tejasvi Surya.
Though the matter was reported, neither Indigo nor officials at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) revealed the name of the passenger.
TNM spoke to one of the eyewitnesses who said it was Surya who opened the exit door. He was made to apologize later. Due to this, the plane was delayed for two hours.
According to eyewitnesses, the incident occurred when the cabin crew was briefing the passengers on safety protocol. Surya was sitting near one of the emergency exits. He was accompanied by the Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai.
“He was listening to it carefully and minutes after that he pulled the lever resulting in the opening of the emergency exit. Immediately, we were all deplaned and made to sit in a bus,” the eyewitness said.
Soon after, officers from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) were rushed to the spot and checked the plane. The passengers were immediately deboarded from the plane and made to sit in a bus.
Once the CISF officers gave a green signal for the plane to fly, Surya was asked to sit in the back.
Incidentally, a Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) leader B T Arasakumar was also traveling in the same flight. He told TNM that he saw both Surya on the flight but could not confirm if it was the young BJP leader who opened the exit door.
“The reason given to passengers on the flight was that there was an air leak in the emergency door of the flight. Passengers were asked to get down,” the DMK leader said as quoted by TNM.
Many incidents of unruly behaviors of air passengers have been reported in the recent past. Apart from “peeing” incidents in flights, a high-pitched argument between an air-passenger and one of the crew members of an IndiGo flight had gone viral on social media during the last year.
Taking note of instances of unruly behavior of air passengers where pilots and cabin crew members have failed to take appropriate actions, DGCA recently asked the Head of operations of the airlines to sensitize pilots, cabin crew, and Director-in-flight Services of their respective airlines on the topic of handling of unruly passengers through appropriate means.
“Thankgod it happened when the plane was still on the ground. Imagine if it had happened mid air. There were a lot of elderly passengers with wheelchair assistance on the flight. It was frustrating,” the passenger said on the condition of anonymity.
