NEW DELHI: The reason behind the very unusual incident of an aircraft of the Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) from Copenhagen to Mumbai forced to return to its base when airborne near Azerbaijan has just come to light: improper documentation resulted in the authorisation for operations being rejected by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The airline has now announced the suspension of its operations to India till June 16.
The incident involving SK969, an Airbus A330 aircraft, on June 2 left authorities at Mumbai disappointed as they were waiting to formally welcome the service, which was relaunched after 17 years. They were alerted later that the maiden flight would not arrive.
Under the Aircraft Act 1934 and the Aircraft rules 1937, an operating authorisation from the DGCA is mandatory for any foreign airline.
Highly placed sources at DGCA told this newspaper, "The SAS plane was asked to return by the Air Traffic Control (ATC) of one of the countries in Asia. The reason is that they had unilaterally decided to fly to India without getting the Operational Authorisation from the DGCA, which is compulsory.”
This would be confirmed by assigning a specific unique Registration number to the airline.
Elaborating on the reasons for the rejection of the authorisation permit, a source said that as per the regulations governing permission for European airlines by India, the airline needs to be atleast 50% owned by individuals in the originating country or any of the European member States.
“SAS had supporting documents only for partial ownership (26%) by a Danish firm and 10% by a French carrier. The halfway ownership mark could not be proven by them, making the documents incomplete.”
Another source said, “This was a clear attempt to arm-twist us into giving the nod. The assumption was that when you are stranded in the air with a plane full of passengers, any regulator would give in and they could somehow make the landing.”
The regulator was getting multiple calls from passengers stranded in Copenhagen after the incident, asking for their refund, another source said.
On Wednesday, SAS stated, “As part of the process to launch our new Copenhagen–Mumbai service, one final formal step remains before we can begin full operations. We continue to work closely with the relevant authorities and stakeholders to secure the remaining approval, and will share updates as soon as we have additional information. Ticket sales are temporarily paused until 16 June to ensure clarity and predictability for our customers.”
The airline added that it was contacting each passenger to give them a rebooking option or refund.
In an earlier statement after the incident, the airline said it expected to get the formal approval from the regulatory authority while the flight was enroute, which did not happen.