Air India has derostered nine employees, including two pilots, for taking on board passengers in excess of aircraft capacity two months ago.
Air India has derostered nine employees, including two pilots, for taking on board passengers in excess of aircraft capacity on its flight two months ago. It also began an independent investigation to pin down others responsible for the violation of security rules.
Air India was forced to take action against the employees after an investigation by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) found out about three passengers (all women) being allowed to board Mumbai-Mangalore IC-179 on May 5 even though it was full. The flight was allowed to carry 172 passengers.
The inquiry found that the pilot had allowed the passengers in disregarding air safety. “One passenger was allowed to sit in cockpit while the others were given seats for the crew,” said a government official. The DGCA began its investigation after the aircraft got damaged due to aerobridge on May 5. It was found that the pilot did not follow the correct procedure while disconnecting the aircraft with the aerobridge. The cockpit voice recorder revealed the presence of a woman passenger in the “jump seat”.
Sources said the extra passengers were family members of one Air India and one Indian Airlines official. “It is clear case of security violation and the airline will face action,” said the official. The extra passengers were issued manual boarding passes since computerised ones cannot be generated once all the seats on a flight are booked. An AI spokesman said the commander of the flight, the co-pilot, a ground engineer, a driver of the tow tractor and five commercial staff were derostered.
The DGCA report submitted on June 26 pointed out that some AI staff had “deliberately tampered” with the ‘load and trim sheet’ of the flight. The trim sheet is a record maintained on all flights detailing the number of passengers, weights of cargo and baggage, number of crew and information like aircraft balance, centre of gravity and other technical inputs.
“We will take all DGCA recommended measures and there is no question of shielding anyone,” the AI spokesperson said. He said though security norms were flouted in this case, there was “no threat to the lives of the passengers”.
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