A major security lapse at the Mumbai airport allowed several passengers from Dhaka to completely fly under the radar and leave the airport without clearing either Immigration or Customs.
Thanks to a break in standard operating procedure last Tuesday, international passengers onboard Jet Airways flight 9W 275 (Dhaka-Mumbai) were sent into the domestic sector of Terminal 2, from where they directly proceeded to the baggage claim area. By the time the authorities realised the blunder, quite a few fliers had allegedly exited the airport without clearing any formalities. Faced with the task of explaining how such an embarrassing and potentially dangerous mistake came to pass, the authorities are now playing the blame game.
Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Airport Customs Rajiv Ranjan confirmed the incident but remained tight-lipped on the details. “An investigation is in process. Nothing concrete can be commented on it as of now,” he said.
According to a senior airport official, this mistake had been repeated at least five times in the past year alone, with international fliers being shunted directly to the domestic sector. One such case took place a few months ago. “In that incident, five passengers had already left for their destinations. Immigration officials had to get in touch with all passengers to ask them to return and finish the processes,” the official stated.
02/08/16 Neha LM Tripathi/Mid Day
To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline
Thanks to a break in standard operating procedure last Tuesday, international passengers onboard Jet Airways flight 9W 275 (Dhaka-Mumbai) were sent into the domestic sector of Terminal 2, from where they directly proceeded to the baggage claim area. By the time the authorities realised the blunder, quite a few fliers had allegedly exited the airport without clearing any formalities. Faced with the task of explaining how such an embarrassing and potentially dangerous mistake came to pass, the authorities are now playing the blame game.
Additional Commissioner of Mumbai Airport Customs Rajiv Ranjan confirmed the incident but remained tight-lipped on the details. “An investigation is in process. Nothing concrete can be commented on it as of now,” he said.
According to a senior airport official, this mistake had been repeated at least five times in the past year alone, with international fliers being shunted directly to the domestic sector. One such case took place a few months ago. “In that incident, five passengers had already left for their destinations. Immigration officials had to get in touch with all passengers to ask them to return and finish the processes,” the official stated.
02/08/16 Neha LM Tripathi/Mid Day
0 comments:
Post a Comment