Thursday, October 18, 2012

Hijack drama: Were Air India passengers overreacting?

New Delhi: Air India Express has been suffering an image crisis for some time now, especially at its home base of Kerala. But today’s hijack scare at Thiruvananthapuram is one incident which is sure to push it further back in perception ratings.
Allegations are that the airline left 165 passengers in the lurch, with no information or food, for several hours when its Abu Dhabi-Kochi flight was diverted to Thiruvananthapuram this morning due to bad weather.
And that the pilot, a lady, triggered a hijack alarm when passengers became unruly.
There is no real confirmation of whether passengers indeed entered the cockpit or if they tried to mis-behave with the pilot or crew. Similarly, there is no confirmation about whether the pilot herself pressed the panic button – the hijack alert in this case – or if it was an alert given by the airport officials present.
But one thing is clear: passengers are getting shriller by the day without many of them realising how an airline is also constrained by rules and regulations when it leaves them to suffer endless hours inside a stuffy aircraft with no food or even water.
19/10/12 Sindhu Bhattacharya/First Post.com
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