Advertisement
Mumbai: On Tuesday, The Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a notice to both Indigo and Mumbai airport after on social media a video of passengers sitting on the tarmac and eating food went viral. The development comes after Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia held a meeting with all ministry officials at midnight on Monday, January 15.
Then, in the early hours of January 16, MoCA’s Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued the notices, reported. The ministry noted that “the aircraft was allotted a remote bay C-33 (instead of a Contact Stand – an aircraft parking stand that is suitable for walking passengers to and from an aircraft from an allocated boarding gate), which further added to passenger woes and deprived them the opportunity to avail basic facilities like restrooms and refreshments at the terminal”.
It added,“This resulted in an unfavourable, unacceptable experience for the tired and harassed passengers. The flight operation was planned and executed without taking passenger convenience, laid down security norms and the operational issues into account.” In case of both notices, the reply must come within the day. If there are no replies, then enforcement action, which includes financial penalties, will be initiated.
The notices require responses by Tuesday (January 16) and stipulate that if replies are not received within the specified timeframe, enforcement action, including financial penalties, will be initiated. The incident occurred when a Delhi-Goa flight was diverted to Mumbai due to bad weather and was delayed by about 12 hours, leading to unrest among passengers, who ate food while sitting on the airport tarmac.
