Aviation regulator
DGCA today asked for recordings of the black box of the Air India
Express plane after a high drama unfolded at Thiruvananthapuram when
some agitated passengers entered the cockpit, leading its pilot to press
the hijack alarm.
The Directorate General
of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has asked the pilots to appear before it to
provide their version of the incident and directed the airline to submit
the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR) or the black box for an inquest,
official sources said.
The regulator also asked Air India Express
to take action as per the Aircraft Act against the passengers who
entered the cockpit. Following this, six passengers were detained at
Kochi airport on charges of endangering aircraft safety when the
Boeing-737 landed there, but let off later.
Quoting reports
reaching the DGCA headquarters here, the sources said four persons had
entered into the cockpit of Kochi-bound Air India Express flight IX-4422
from Abu Dhabi when the plane was diverted to Thiruvananthapuram due to
poor weather at Kochi.
"Several others blocked the galley and
got into heated argument with the pilot demanding that they fly the
plane to Kochi," a source said.
The airline summoned buses to
take the passengers to Kochi but they refused to disembark. The crew
could not operate the flight as they exhausted their Flight Duty Time
Limitation.
As ruckus prevailed and the passengers entered the
cockpit and blocked the galleys, the pilot, Commander Rupali Waghmare,
pressed the alarm button sending out a hijack message, setting off a
flurry of anti-hijacking activities, including armed police and
paramilitary personnel surrounding the aircraft.
When things
settled down, the DGCA called off the hijack alert. Once such an alert
is issued, it is mandatory that the anti-hijacking procedures initiated
are called off. Without this, the aircraft involved cannot be cleared
for take-off.
After DGCA gave the clearance, a new set of crew flew the aircraft to Kochi after a delay of several hours, the sources said.
"The
DGCA would get the CVR and go through the recording. The regulator has
asked the pilots to depose before it," the sources said, adding no
pilots have been suspended.
The pilot later lodged a complaint
that some passengers had barged into the cockpit and threatened her with
dire consequences if she did not take the flight to Kochi.
http://www.dnaindia.com
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