Wife’s SOS offloads man

Nirav Gandhi’s wife told Virgin Airlines that her husband was fleeing; security sources said he was mentally deranged

A “mentally deranged” man was offloaded by armed commandos from the Mumbai-London Virgin Atlantic flight (VS 351) at Chhatrapati Shivaji Intenational Airport after authorities received a distress call from the man’s wife. The incident occurred amidst international edginess caused by the unravelling of an elaborate terror plot in the UK.

Interestingly, Nirav Gandhi, the passenger who was offloaded, didn’t protest. He calmly walked off the plane with the commandos. He was reportedly taken home by a relative from the airport.

Sources at the airport said that the flight was taxying for the main runway when the pilot radioed the Air Traffic Control (ATC) that he would have to defer the take-off to offload a passenger. The flight, scheduled for a 2pm take-off, was delayed by “under three hours.”

The Virgin headquarters in London told DNA, “It was a family matter because of which the passenger was offloaded. Since we are bound by the Data Protection Act, we won’t be able to give any more detail.”

CISF senior commandant Sanjay Prakash corroborated their statement. “There was a call from Gandhi’s wife to the Virgin authorities at the airport, saying he was fleeing country, leaving the family behind,” he said.

However, other security sources at the airport said Gandhi was offloaded because of his “mental instability”. “Proofs were submitted to the Virgin authorities, who feared that the passenger might turn violent on board,” said a security personnel on condition of anonymity.

According to the IATA medical manual governing international airlines, if an airline feels that a mentally deranged passenger, traveling without an escort, can be a threat to the aircraft or to the security of the other passengers on board, the airline reserves the right to offload him/her without any liability for doing so.

The Virgin spokesperson at the airport, however, failed to answer certain queries. First, if the passenger was so sick, how was he allowed to board the aircraft. How did he clear all the security checks and without showing any abnormality? How was it ascertained that it was indeed his wife who made the call? The Virgin spokesperson refused to answer any questions.

Asked whether the airline over-reacted because of the terror threats in the UK, the spokesperson said, “There is no safety and security issue involved here.”

It may be recalled that Virgin Atlantic’s Mumbai office had received a letter (DNA had carried the story), stating that a Muslim terrorist would try and take his family out of India on its flight under a disguise.