Director General Civil Aviation probe into opening of emergency doors

The Director General Civil Aviation(DGCA) has ordered investigation into opening of emergency door of the Delhi bound IT-4660 flight of Kingfisher on Tuesday night at Amausi airport. The emergency door of the aircraft was suddenly opened when the flight was on runway for take off.

Taking serious note of the incident an official of DGCA said on the condition of anonymity, "These sort of incidents cannot be taken lightly, it is a serious error. Had it been in mid air the story would have been different."

Even as 62 passengers expressed anger over the incident the airlines staff holding a passenger responsible for the opening of the door deplaned and detained him at the airport. The airlines staff action further infuriated the passengers.

Highly placed sources at the airport told HT that blaming the passenger for opening of the door was wrong, as opening was not possible after taking over of the command of cockpit by the pilot. Sources said that the engineering staff had cleared the flight before take off. The aircraft was fit to fly and nothing unsusual was noticed, said the sources. The flight was delayed for nearly two hours.

RK Singh, one of the passnegers on board said, "the passenger ( name withheld) , was de-planed and handed over by the Kingfisher staff to the authorities alleging that he was the one who had opened the latch on the emergency door. He was treated like a criminal."

The airlines authorities said that the passenger was de-planed and handed over to the authorities. It is learnt that seven of the passengers withdrew from the flight due to insecurity and the plane went with only 55 passengers.

The Airport Authority of India has taken up the matter with the airlines. "We are told that the emergency door was opened but beyond this AAI would not like to comment," said director airport, Atul Dixit.

An airline spokesperson said when the passengers were being boarded on flight IT-4660, scheduled for 10.45 pm a passenger on board opened one of the emergency doors. While the passengers said that plane was ready for take off when the emergency exit gate was opened, the airline spokesperson claimed that the aircraft was stationary at the time of the incident. However DGCA officials said that the real reason for opening of emergency exit gate would come to fore only after the inquiry was over.

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