New Delhi: The Centre Thursday officially admitted that it was BJP MP from Bengaluru South Tejasvi Surya who had accidentally opened the emergency exit of an IndiGo plane at Chennai airport, days after a row erupted over the incident that took place in December.
The flight from Chennai to Tiruchirappalli was delayed at the time because of the incident.
“As per the report submitted by M/s Interglobe Aviation Limited, the name of the passenger alleged in the incident is Shri Tejasvi Surya who had boarded flight 6E-7339 (Chennai to Tiruchirappalli) at Chennai Airport on December 10, 2022,” Gen (retd) V.K. Singh, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Singh was replying to a query by MP Mala Roy on whether the government, through the Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has identified the passenger who had illegally opened the emergency door of an aircraft in Chennai.
“The emergency door opened accidently as clarified by Interglobe Aviation Limited,” Singh added. “This was not a deliberate action and as per Interglobe Aviation, they did not find the passenger to be in violation of any rule.”
He also said the incident did not come under the category of “reportable occurrence”, according to the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) Section 5 Series C Part I, that talks about “notification of incidents and investigation thereof” by the DGCA.
“The matter was investigated by the concerned airline. The occurrence took place while the aircraft was on ground and the flight departed only after completing all the safety checks/ protocols,” he added.
On 10 December, a passenger – now confirmed to be Surya – traveling on flight 6E 7339 from Chennai to Tiruchirapalli had “accidentally” opened the emergency exit while boarding, when the plane was still on the ground.
The DGCA had in January said the incident was duly reported and appeared to be a mistake.
“The emergency exit got opened by a passenger while the aircraft was on the ground,” the DGCA had said in a statement at the time.
“The crew took note and resultantly, all appropriate airworthiness actions such as reinstalling of door, pressurisation check, etc, were carried out before the release of the aircraft for departure. No safety was compromised,” the DGCA’s statement added.
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