Airline asked to explain refusal

New Delhi: The civil aviation ministry will seek an explanation from private airline Jetlite after an MP complained that the airline had refused to carry a coffin on one of its flights last year. The MP, Mr Tapir Gao, from Arunachal Pradesh, made the complaint at a meeting on Wednesday of the parliamentary consultative committee on civil aviation, of which he is a member. Highly-placed civil aviation ministry sources told this newspaper that the ministry would seek an explanation from Jetlite.
Mr Gao complained that Jetlite had refused to carry the coffin containing the body of a person from his state who had earlier come to Delhi seeking medical treatment. The incident reportedly occurred a few months ago and the coffin was to be taken aboard a Jetlite flight from Delhi to Dibrugarh but Jetlite refused to carry it, he said. Mr Gao said that all private airlines were refusing to carry coffins aboard their flights.
After the meeting, civil aviation minister Praful Patel issued a directive to the DGCA "to give strict instructions to all airlines and issue and issue a civil aviation requirement to ensure that no airlines refuses such a request unless on technical grounds".
07/05/08 Howrah News Service

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Categories: Jetlite May 2008