Thursday, September 25, 2014

'No significant' turbulence on AI Delhi-Shanghai flight: DGCA

NEW DELHI: Aviation regulator DGCA has found "no significant" turbulence on Air India's Delhi-Shanghai flight earlier this month, as alleged by an air hostess, and has asked the entire crew to record their statements before it on Monday. 

One of the cabin crew members on flight AI-348, flying on Delhi-Shanghai route on September 7, had alleged in a complaint that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner had experienced a severe bout of turbulence on its way to the eastern Chinese city, resulting in some passengers and crew members being thrown about and receiving injuries.

In the complaint filed several days after the incident, the air hostess had also alleged that the commander of the plane had "threatened us against any of us opening our mouth about the incident".

DGCA sources said they had "inspected and evaluated the recordings" of the Digital Flight Data Recorder ( DFDR) of the aircraft and found "no significant G-value" (which measures changes in gravitational pull), establishing that there was no "severe air turbulence" as was claimed by the cabin crew.

There were also no injuries to any passenger or cabin crew member on board the flight as was alleged by her, the sources said.

While the statement of the commander of the flight has already been recorded, all other crew members have been asked to appear before the DGCA on Monday to record their statements on whether such an incident had really happened, they said.

Earlier, an Air India spokesperson had said there was no enquiry into the incident as no such report was filed. He also termed the cabin crew's claims as "mischievous and malicious" and said, "We always take reports on safety of passengers and aircraft very seriously and act on them."

Source:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com

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