TRIVANDRUM - The
investigation by the Kerala police have found the complaint lodged by
the pilot of Abu Dhabi-Cochin flight, diverted from Cochin to Trivandrum
due to bad weather on October 19, regarding attempt by passengers to
hijack the flight baseless.
Rupali Waghmore, the woman pilot,
had alleged that six passengers had entered the cockpit and one of them
had threatened to kill her if she did not take the flight to Cochin.
The passengers had staged protests inside the aircraft after the pilot
tried to leave following end of her duty time.
A special
investigation team (SIT), led by Shanghumugham assistant commissioner,
found that the pilot had not pressed the hijack button. Examination of
the communication between the pilot and the Air Traffic Control revealed
that she had pressed only the emergency button.
However, she
mentioned a hijack-like situation in her oral communication with the Air
Traffic Control. They sounded the hijack alarm based on Rupali’s oral
communication, the source said.
The police also could not get any
evidence about the threat made to life by one of the passengers.
Although Air India had claimed that they had audio recordings to prove,
the airline has so for not handed them over to the investigation team
despite repeated reminders.
The SIT has veered round to the view
that the protests by the passengers were natural reaction to the delay
in resuming the diverted flight. If Air India does not hand over the
evidence the police may close the case.
The Valiyathura police
had registered a case under various sections of Indian Penal Code based
on the pilot’s complaint. The SIT had summoned the six passengers and
questioned them last week. They were also questioned at Cochin by the
Bureau of Civil Aviation Safety.
Federal Civil Aviation Minister
Ajith Singh had termed the passenger’s action serious. However, Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy blasted the Air India, saying they had not shown
the responsibility to explain the situation properly to the passengers.
The
chief minister said that the situation could have been averted if a
senior official of the Air India was present at the airport and
explained the reasons for the delay.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment