It appears that once bitten, twice shy does not apply to officials of Air India Express. On Friday, passengers of a Mumbai-Doha flight had to wait for over 90 minutes at T2 because a crew member did not have the required Airport Entry Pass.
The same flight had been delayed for the same reason in January, but it seems no lessons have been learnt. What’s even more alarming is that security norms were breached, both in January and on Friday, when crew members were allowed to fly using boarding passes meant for passengers.
Air India Express flight IX 243 (Mumbai-Doha) was supposed to take off at 8.30 am, but it left only after 10 am leaving its 96 passengers fuming because one of the two crew members did not have an Airport Entry pass. A source from the airline said, “Two such crew members (without AEP) had been scheduled for the flight.
Though the officials were intimated beforehand to replace both of them, they replaced only one. A senior crew member was replaced and the name of a female crew member, who lacked an AEP, remained in the roster.”
The source also alleged that the administrative section of the airline in Mumbai had failed to keep track of the expired AEPs and coordinate with the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) for timely renewel of these passes that are issued annually.
11/06/15 Neha LM Tripathi/Mid Day
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
The same flight had been delayed for the same reason in January, but it seems no lessons have been learnt. What’s even more alarming is that security norms were breached, both in January and on Friday, when crew members were allowed to fly using boarding passes meant for passengers.
Air India Express flight IX 243 (Mumbai-Doha) was supposed to take off at 8.30 am, but it left only after 10 am leaving its 96 passengers fuming because one of the two crew members did not have an Airport Entry pass. A source from the airline said, “Two such crew members (without AEP) had been scheduled for the flight.
Though the officials were intimated beforehand to replace both of them, they replaced only one. A senior crew member was replaced and the name of a female crew member, who lacked an AEP, remained in the roster.”
The source also alleged that the administrative section of the airline in Mumbai had failed to keep track of the expired AEPs and coordinate with the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) for timely renewel of these passes that are issued annually.
11/06/15 Neha LM Tripathi/Mid Day
