Mumbai airport incident: MoCA issues show cause notices to IndiGo, MIAL

Pic/PTI

After a video of Mumbai airport incident where passengers were seen eating on the tarmac at airport went viral on social media, Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia held a meeting with all ministry officials at midnight on Monday, reported news agency ANI.

In the early hours of Tuesday, MoCA's (Ministry of Civil Aviation) Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued show-cause notices to Indigo and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) over the Mumbai airport incident, reported ANI.

According to the notices, "both Indigo and Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL) were not proactive in anticipating the situation and making the appropriate facilitation arrangements for passengers at the airport", reported ANI.

For instance, "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", reported ANI.

This resulted in an unfavourable, unacceptable experience for the tired and harassed passengers. The flight operation was planned and executed without taking passengers' convenience, security norms and operational issues into account, reported ANI.

Concerning Indigo, a show cause notice has been issued for the violation of Rule 51 of the Aircraft (Security) Rules, 2023, regarding failure to observe due aviation security procedures in respect of Flight no 6E 2195 which landed at Mumbai Airport at 2321 hrs. on January 14 as a diversion case, reported ANI.

The notice says that Indigo allowed the disembarkation of passengers from flight 6E 2195 onto the apron and then boarded them on to flight 6E 2091 on January 15 at Mumbai airport, without following the procedure of security screening, which violates the above-mentioned orders.

Further, the incident was not reported to BCAS by the aircraft operator which is attributed to a violation of Rule 51 of the Aircraft (Security) Rules, 2023, reported ANI.

Concerning MIAL, a show-cause notice for the violation of Rule 51 of the Aircraft (Security) Rules, 2023 has been issued regarding failure to report an incident in respect of Flight no 6E 2195 which landed at the Mumbai Airport. The ASG of Mumbai was also not forewarned about the situation, reported ANI.

In the case of both notices, MoCA has asked for replies by Tuesday. If replies are not received in the given time, then enforcement action including financial penalty will be initiated.

Mumbai airport is operated by the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).

(With inputs from ANI)