KA flight violated air security too

Mumbai: The Kuwait Airways flight from Mumbai Airport which flew with three extra passengers in October last year has turned out to be a serious case of not just air safety but also air security violation. It has now emerged that even documents were manipulated to show that the trio was not on board at all.
The three passengers, whose case is being investigated by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, were “offloaded’’ on paper and their boarding passes deliberately not scanned so that their presence on board was not registered. The trio flew business class and among them carried a total of 15 bags, with check-in bags alone weighing 221 kg.
It is not known whether the Kuwait Airways pilots were aware that a total of 400 kg of “unaccounted’’ extra weight had been loaded on to their A300 aircraft.
According to sources, the three passengers were the mother and two female relatives of a Kuwaiti national who worked for Kuwait Airways and was based in Mumbai airport. “They had three economy-class open tickets, and though the economy class, with a total of 214 seats, was over-booked on flight KU 302 of October 20, the airline station manager decided to accommodate his colleague’s relatives,’’ an official alleged. Khalid AlHazza, the Kuwait Airways station manager, when contacted, said that a staff member would comment on the issue. The staff member, when questioned, said that the matter was being investigated.
The problems began when the three passengers had to be upgraded to business class since the economy class was overbooked. This meant violating the Kuwait Airways policy, which dictates that passengers with open tickets should not be upgraded. It was to circumvent this policy that a number of rules were broken.
But since the three passengers were “offloaded’’ on paper, the load and trim sheet (which is prepared by Air India staff for Kuwait Airways) was changed accordingly. A load and trim sheet has crucial inputs like total weight carried on board, where and how it is loaded and so on to ensure that the aircraft stays balanced and in control during all stages of a flight.
21/01/10 Manu V/Times of India

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Categories: Airports Jan 2010, Foreign Jan 2010, Safety Jan 2010