Drunk Flyer Arrested For Attempting To Open Emergency Exit Of Delhi-Bengaluru IndiGo Flight Mid-Air
In yet another case of onboard unruly flyer behaviour, a drunk passenger created a security scare after attempting to open the emergency exit of a mid-air Delhi-Bengaluru IndiGo flight.
The passenger, identified as R Prateek, was arrested on Friday after the flight landed at the Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru.
Passenger arrested in Bengaluru
According to officials, the 30-year-old passenger who was seated on 18F of the IndiGo flight number 6E-308 was in a drunken state?while the aircraft was flying.
The passenger, a native of Kanpur who works as a marketing executive at a leading e-commerce firm, was detained at the airport police station on the complaint of the flight's crew.
He has been under sections 290 and 336 of the IPC and 11(A) of the Aircraft Act.
What happened mid-air
In a statement, Indigo Airlines also said that a passenger travelling on flight 6E 308 from Delhi to Bengaluru tried opening the flap of the emergency exit in an inebriated state.
"The passenger travelling on flight 6E 308 from Delhi to Bengaluru tried opening the flap of the emergency exit in an inebriated state. On noticing this violation, the crew on board alerted the captain and the passenger was appropriately cautioned. There was no compromise on the safe operation of the said flight and the unruly passenger was handed over to CISF upon arrival in Bengaluru," Indigo said.
Yet another emergency exit incident on IndiGo?
While the incident was reported and action was taken against the passenger, a similar act on another IndiGo flight in December had gone unreported for nearly a month.
On Dec 10, 2022, a passenger travelling on IndiGo flight 6E 7339 from Chennai to Tiruchirapalli opened the emergency exit?while the flight was still in the airport, causing nearly one hour delay for it to take off.
Despite this, IndiGo did not report the matter to the authorities, and it came out only in January after several social media users claimed that the passenger in question was BJP's South Bengaluru MP,?Tejasvi Surya.
After the DGCA launched a probe into the matter, IndiGo confirmed the incident but claimed that the passenger accidentally opened the emergency exit during boarding.
"The passenger immediately apologised for the action. As per SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures), the incident was logged, and the aircraft underwent mandatory engineering checks, which led to a delay in the flight's departure," IndiGo said in a statement.
The airline also did not name the passenger and the BJP MP has also not admitted that it was him.
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