Congress leader and Lok Sabha member Manickam Tagore on January 18 took to Twitter to say that he would raise the airline incident involving BJP leader Tejasvi Surya at the next meeting of a parliamentary panel on civil aviation.
Mr. Surya found himself at the centre of another controversy after it emerged that he had opened the emergency exit door on an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Tiruchirapalli last month.
The incident happened on IndiGo flight 6E 7339 on December 10, 2022, when the cabin crew of an ATR-72 aircraft were giving safety instructions to passengers seated in the emergency row. He was seated next to Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai.
“Demand to @DGCAIndia for complete investigation with crew and those passengers who were near to emergency exit doors,” tweeted Mr. Tagore, who is a member of the Consultative Committee on Civil Aviation, on Tuesday.
“Will raise this matter in the next Civil Aviation Consultative committee meeting and in the coming parliament session. It’s about the safety of the passengers that was at risk because of the childish behaviour of MP and BJP State chief. Criminal action against them must. Let’s demand it,” the Congress MP added.
Defending Mr. Surya, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the door opened by mistake.
“It’s important to look at the facts. The door was opened by him by mistake when the flight was on the ground and after all checks, the flight was allowed to take off. He also apologised for the mistake,” Mr. Scindia told news agency ANI.
Though the flight was delayed by about two hours, the airline downplayed the incident. Aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had said that the incident didn’t compromise passenger safety.
“All appropriate airworthiness actions such as reinstalling the door, pressurisation check were carried out before the release of the aircraft for departure. No safety was compromised,” Director General of DGCA Arun Kumar had said.
Published - January 18, 2023 04:01 pm IST
