Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Air India cabin crew shouldn't have left the cockpit door unmanned, says senior crew member

Mumbai: The cabin crew on board the Air India Delhi to Mumbai flight which was inordinately delayed last week were lax in their duties as they had failed to keep the cockpit door area sterile, said a senior Air India cabin crew member in a letter sent to the airline and the Indian aviation regulator about the incident.
The Boeing 747 jumbo jet which was to operate Air India Delhi-Mumbai flight AI-865 on January 02 had a technical problem on ground and the departure was delayed as the aircraft returned to the parking bay. The passengers had to remain seated inside the aircraft for four hours after which they were allowed to disembark.
They reboarded at 6 pm, but the aircraft returned to the gate a second time. The delay frustrated passengers, who turned unruly, while some walked up to the cockpit door and repeatedly knocked on it abusing the crew. A clip that did rounds showed a passenger threatening to break the cockpit door if the pilots didn’t come out. Another could be seen shouting at the cockpit door in an abusive language, asking the pilots to step out. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has asked Air India to take action against the passengers seen in the clips.

In a letter sent to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), K V J Rao, general secretary, All India Cabin Crew Association said: ``It can be seen from the videos that, the said incident happened in the upper deck of the Boeing 747-400 aircraft. In the said type of aircraft, just before the cockpit, there are two toilets on either side of the aisle. But there was no cabin crew member, who should have mandatorily been present to prevent, stop, obstruct the passengers from going and congregating outside the cockpit door,’’ said the letter. ``This is a serious breach as the passengers had no deterrent they had a field day knocking on the doors of the cockpit and passing snide remarks at the pilots,’’ the letter added.
14/01/20 Manju V/Times of India

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

0 comments:

Post a Comment