Seconds after an Air India Dreamliner began taxiing to depart from London's Heathrow for Ahmedabad, the commander learnt that a ground staffer had left his cellphone in the aircraft.
Probably having lived through the anxiety that a misplaced phone brings on, the pilot, in an unprecedented handling of a mundane situation, decided to stop the aircraft and have a flight attendant open a door and drop the phone to its owner.
The generous gesture, however, didn't go to plan. What unfolded instead has turned flight AI-176 into arguably the world's first documented case of nomophobia-led deployment of an emergency inflatable slide-raft and consequent flight delay of almost two hours. Nomophobia, of course, is the fear of being without one's cellphone.
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The incident occurred on March 18, when seconds into taxiing, the commander of the Boeing 787-800 (VT-ANP) found out about the unaccompanied cellphone. "It belonged to a maintenance engineer who had deplaned after readying the flight for departure," said a source.
What transpired on the London-Ahmedabad flight last month was a series of incredible decisions. "The commander informed the ground staff to ask the engineer to reach the aircraft and collect the phone," said a source.
He instructed the cabin crew-in-charge to 'recycle the door', open it and throw the phone, which could be safely embedded in a pillow, conscripted from the passenger cabin for the mission.
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'Recycle the door' means to change the mode it is set in. Aircraft doors are either set in automatic mode ('armed' in aviation parlance) or manual ('unarmed'). Before departure, the commander gives an 'arm the doors' or 'doors to automatic' instruction to the crew. An armed door is one which is ready for use in an emergency evacuation. If it is opened, the emergency evacuation slide raft will inflate and position itself within six seconds.
"Many tasks need to be completed before cabin crew can strap themselves for take-off. Amid the confusion caused by the cellphone on the AI flight, the cabin crew-in-charge (who is based in Mumbai) appears to have forgotten to change the door's mode to manual," said the source.
When she opened the door, the slide inflated and fell into position, ready for an evacuation. But instead of panicky passengers, the only person standing at the door was the rather shocked crew-in-charge, holding a pillow stuffed with suddenly not-so-precious cargo.?
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The flight's departure had to be delayed. "The engineering team had to disconnect the slide, deflate it, and fold and pack it into the cargo compartment," the source said. AI-176, which had started taxiing at 2pm, finally departed at 3.46pm.
On the incident, an Air India spokesperson said, "the March 18 London-Ahmedabad flight was delayed after an evacuation slide deployed", without divulging details. According to sources, AI's flight safety department is aware of the incident and an internal investigation is on.
A senior commander said, "Passengers and others might find it surprising that the pilot decided to stop a taxiing aircraft to throw down a phone. The incident highlights the role that familiarity with a certain working environment plays in decision-making. It's an unusual lesson in human factors."