New Delhi: A routine probe into a damaged door has ended up piling one embarrassment on top of another for embattled national carrier Air India (AI). The IC 179 Air India flight from Mumbai to Mangalore, which landed in trouble when a DGCA (Directorate General Of Civil Aviation) probe revealed that it was carrying passengers beyond its capacity, had doctored records to show the extra travelers as 'infants', DNA has learnt.
The Airbus A-321 aircraft never took off from Mumbai airport on May 5, 2009 because its door got damaged. According to reports, the aircraft's door got damaged when towing started while the plane was still attached to the aerobridge. As a result, all the passengers were taken to another aircraft. "But the woman pilot of the second aircraft refused to accommodate the extra passengers and this forced the crew and pilot to tamper with the passenger records," said a senior government official.
The DGCA had originally launched a probe only into the door damage incident.
Sources said that the flight records of the damaged aircraft mentioned 173 passengers and six infants. But records in the second aircraft showed 173 adults and three infants. "....During the probe, it emerged that the excess passengers were shown as infants to avoid any suspicion," said the official. Sources said that of the three extra passengers - all women - one was accommodated in the cockpit and two occupied the foldable seats used by cabin crew during take-off and landing.
This gross violation of air safety norms was confirmed by the analysis of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), which established the presence of a woman passenger in the cockpit.Sources said that the extra passengers were family members of airline officials.
12/07/09 Yogesh Kumar/Daily News & Analysis
Sunday, July 12, 2009
AI flight recorded adult travelers as infants
Air India likely to take action against more staffers by tomorrow
New Delhi: Air India, which de rostered nine employees including two pilots for taking on board three passengers in excess of the aircraft capacity two months ago, is likely to take action against more staffers.
"We will take action against those guilty by tomorrow," an airline official said.
The incident occurred on May 5 when its Mumbai-Mangalore flight IC-179 took off with three extra passengers, with one of them seated in the cockpit.
With the internal probe by its Executive Director of Western Region in progress, the airline has received some feedback as to who ordered carrying of the three passengers and who were the people involved in issuing of boarding passes manually, airline sources said.
There were indications that the three passengers were the wife and two children of one of the pilots who is among the nine employees derostered, they said, adding that some employees were probably "pressurised" to put them on board the packed 172-seater Airbus A-321 aircraft.
While one of the three extra passengers was seated inside the cockpit on the 'jump seat' (the third seat besides the two meant for pilot and co-pilot) in complete violation of security guidelines, the other two were accommodated on seats meant for the cabin crew.
The commander of the flight, the co-pilot, a ground engineer, a driver of the tow tractor and five commercial staff were derostered immediately after this accident.
The DGCA had also pointed out that some had "deliberately tampered" with the 'load and trim sheet' of the flight. It is a record of a flight detailing the number of passengers and crew members, the weight of cargo and baggage, being carried and technical information like aircraft balance and its centre of gravity.
Industry sources said carrying of a passenger inside the cockpit was not only "gross negligence" but a clear violation of security and safety regulations.
11/07/09 PTI/The Hindu
Extra flyers on board? It’s routine for airlines
New Delhi: The recent discovery of three extra passengers — one ‘adjusted’ in the cockpit and two on cabin crew seats — on an Air India flight has just exposed what has been a routine practice among airlines for years, say industry insiders.
Former DGCA chief Kanu Gohain recalls instances when a woman was caught travelling in the cockpit of a domestic flight with her pet dog some years back. About a decade back, a plane flying from Patna to Delhi had an extra passenger ‘adjusted’ in the toilet!
“There have been such instances in the past. We had to issue an aeronautical information circular (AIC) prescribing who is allowed inside the cockpit. This list included pilots, cabin crew and officers of DGCA, aviation ministry or Met department on observation flights with prior clearance ,” Gohain said. The AIC was meant to serve as a warning-cum-guideline for airline staffers to deter them from accommodating unauthorised passengers on full planes.
Pilots, too, are allowed to travel in cockpit only if on duty and not if they are going on a personal trip. This guideline , too, has been bent ingeniously . Some airlines have an unwritten policy to allow pilots on leave to travel in jump seats. Others give a staff on duty ticket to pilots or engineers going on leave to enable them to travel in the cockpit . Recently, Indian Airlines grounded one of its pilots for flying from travelling from Patna to Delhi on the cockpit’s jump seat on a personal trip.
12/07/09 Saurabh Sinha/Economic Times
India's first anti-terror test fails, Govt directs urgent measures
New Delhi: The first major test of India’s supposedly faster, smarter anti-terror system turned out to be a grand fiasco, it has now emerged.
The Cabinet Secretary, India’s most senior bureaucrat, convened a series of review meetings after the hijack drama involved IndiGo flight E6-334 from Goa to Delhi On February 2. The message: Fix the problems.
After the Air Traffic Control (ATC) flashed the “hijack” message, the Flight E6-334 landed at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport at around 5.20 p.m. and NSG commandos arrived quickly enough at the airport from a nearby base — but without their commander. The officer got late as he had to come in from NSG headquarters in Manesar, Haryana, 50 km south of the airport.
Further time was lost as the NSG team and airport guards from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) quarreled about who would do what, the documents said.
No one knew who was to run the show, the documents said, citing the lack of “effective coordination” among the NSG, the CISF and the Delhi police.
The confusion wasn’t only about roles.
The NSG and the CISF — a paramilitary force tasked with protecting India’s economic infrastructure -- disagreed even about switching on floodlights around the parked aircraft.
Switch on the floodlights, said the CISF. No, switch them off, said the NSG. The February 1 comedy of errors continued. Secure hotlines in control rooms did not work and unsecure mobile phones were used instead by intelligence and security agencies.
This behind-the-scenes confusion translated into chaos at the airport.
“There was a time lag between stationing of the aircraft in the isolation bay (17.37 hrs) and door opening (19.50 hrs), evacuation process of passengers (21.13 hrs) and final delivery of baggage,” pointed out Nasim Zaidi, Director General of Civil Aviation during the February 7 meeting. Besides, air traffic was disrupted for hours.
The Cabinet Secretary has directed immediate corrective measures after two meetings with members of three bodies tasked with overseeing anti-hijack operations: Committee of Secretaries for Aircraft Hijack, the Central Committee and the Aerodrome Committee.
12/07/09 Manish Tiwari/Hindustan Times
Kingfisher launches flights on 8 international routes
New Delhi: Expanding its global network, Kingfisher Airlines on Saturday announced the launch of flights on eight international routes before the year end. It also announced suspension of its services on Bangalore-London and Bangalore-Colombo routes from September 15, while launching two new flights on Mumbai-Singapore and Mumbai-Hong Kong sectors from the next day.Both these new flights would be daily direct return services and operated by new Airbus A330-200 aircraft, an airline spokesperson said, adding that the bookings for travel on these two sectors would be opened shortly.
From the winter schedule, which begins in October end, the Vijay Mallya-promoted premier carrier would start operating on six more international routes, subject to approval by the Civil Aviation Ministry.
The routes are Delhi-London Heathrow, Delhi-Bangkok, Delhi-Dubai, Mumbai-Bangkok, Mumbai-Dubai and Mumbai-Colombo. These would be the first international flights the airline would launch out of Delhi.
11/07/09 Times of India
AI flight makes emergency landing
Mumbai: An Air India flight to Kolkata had to turn back mid-air and return to Mumbai on Saturday evening to make an emergency landing after one of its engines failed.
No one was injured as the landing procedure was completed without a hitch though a full emergency was declared when Mumbai-Kolkata flight IC 274 landed.
Several fire-tenders followed the aircraft till the parking bay to ensure safety and all 94 passengers on board were shifted to another aircraft soon after.
Despite the emergency landing, officials said people aboard the aircraft were never in danger.
Airport officials told TOI that the aircraft took off from Mumbai around 7.08 pm and sounded an emergency after it travelling 270 km east of Mumbai. "The aircraft was near Aurangabad when the commander alerted the traffic controller about an engine failure. He requested to return immediately,'' an airport official said. "It landed almost an hour after it took off,'' he added. The aircraft, an A-320, landed at 8.13 pm.
12/07//09 Chinmayi Shalya/Times of India
Panel to keep tabs on flight delays
Mumbai: The civil aviation ministry has taken serious note of flight delays and asked Mumbai and Delhi airports to set up a special committee to analyse on-time performance of airlines on a daily basis.
In an air transport circular sent to Mumbai and Delhi airports last week, the ministry directed the airport operator, airline officials and traffic controllers to send daily reports on on-time performance of flights and reasons for delays. Experts see this as a move towards maintaining flight schedule discipline as is done at many international airports abroad.
Airlines, till this move, have been sending performance data to the DGCA on a monthly basis. Now, however, all details are collated and sent across by the airport operator to a dedicated task force in Delhi. This is the second step taken by the ministry to bring airlines to book for not abiding to schedule.
The ministry has already started releasing monthly lists of airlines’ on-time performance.
12/07/09 Chinmayi Shalya/Economic Times
'Mentally unstable' woman slaps airlines employee
Kolkata: A woman, stated to be of unstable mind, allegedly slapped a Spicejet employee and twisted the identity tags of others after refused permission to board a flight for late arrival, creating a ruckus at the city airport today.
She was handed over to police but later allowed to go without pressing of charges.
Airport sources said the 35-year old woman reached the airport at 3:50 pm and with just 10 minutes to go for the Kolkata-Bangalore flight to leave, the airlines staff at the counter told her the collection of boarding pass and other formalities could not be completed in such short time.
11/07/09 Chennai Online
Girl with flu sent Hospital
Calcutta: A 10-year old NRI girl was sent to the Infectious Diseases Hospital in Beleghata from the airport this evening on the suspicion that she has swine flu.
When the child, Sanjukta Wadedar, landed in Calcutta airport she had fever.
Sanjukta, who holds a British passport, was with her parents and sister on Air India’s London-Delhi-Calcutta flight. The airport health officials sent her to the ID hospital.
Hospital authorities said Sanjukta has been put in an air-conditioned cabin and not the isolation ward where suspected swine flu patients are kept.
11/07/09 The Telegraph
AI to leverage properties for raising funds
New Delhi: Cash-strapped state-run national carrier Air India will now leverage its properties and real estate in India and abroad to enhance revenue and infuse cash.
“Director Related Business (one of the directors in Air India) will be responsible for leveraging properties and real estate for enhanced revenues and cash infusion over the next 6-12-18 months, besides undertaking rent reduction measures,” an Air India circular stated.
Additionally, as a part of the restructuring exercise, Air India would also vacate some of its offices and staff from those offices and be relocated to other short-staffed stations.
The airline is expected to register a loss of about Rs 5,000 crore in 2008-09 due to high operating expenses. Its borrowings have risen from Rs 6,550 crore in November 2007 to Rs 15,241 crore in June 2009.
According to the company estimates Air India has assets and properties valued at over Rs 10,000 crore, with the airlines’ office at Nariman Point alone being estimated at upwards of Rs 2,500 crore.
10/07/09 Samiran Saha/Hindustan Times
