In a major security breach, an Air India (AI) pilot kept highly-sensitive officials letters of the Indian embassy in New York in the cockpit of his aircraft while flying
NEW DELHI: In a major security breach, an Air India (AI) pilot kept highly-sensitive officials letters of the Indian embassy in New York in the cockpit of his aircraft while flying back to New Delhi on September 19.
Top government sources told DNA the pilot, captain Gopal Nambiar, knew that the mails should be kept in a special locker, but chose to casually keep them in the cockpit.
The incident came to the notice of government agencies because the mails were marked sensitive and highly confidential and the aircraft, being a transit flight, was on ground for three hours in Paris.
Official letter bags are highly-secret items, which are kept in lockers, and the pilot is the sole custodian once they reach an aircraft.
“But in no circumstance the pilot is allowed to keep the bag in the cockpit because the letters are highly confidential. He (Nambiar) should not have taken any chance knowing the prime minister is visiting the US,” an official said.
The Air India spokesperson here feigned ignorance about the incident but said: “The pilot might have kept the bag of mails in the cockpit because it is also a very safe area. It is wrong to say the bag was wrongly kept.”
He, however, agreed embassy mail bags should be ideally kept in a special locker.
The intelligence wing of the airport and the airline found nothing amiss in the bag when the aircraft reached Delhi and handed it over to the ministry of external affairs.
All official communication and letters from Indian embassies are brought home on Air India flights. “But it has been found that pilots, instead of keeping such mails in the secret locker or secret safe at the cargo load point, keep them in the cockpit. This is a security breach,” a top government source said.
Sources said the bag passed through all checks at the New York airport. Captain Nambiar kept it in the cockpit because the locker was not opening. According to the rulebook, the embassy officials should have been informed and the bag returned.
“For three hours the aircraft was at Paris airport and anything could have happened,” said the official.
k_yogesh@dnaindia.net
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