NEW DELHI: A passenger onboard an IndiGo flight from Bengaluru to Varanasi made two attempts to open the emergency exit door when airborne, forcing the pilot to abort landing at Varanasi airport, on Saturday.
An FIR has been booked against the passenger at the airport police station after the flight landed safely after some delay.
Airport police station sources said an Indigo staffer had filed a complaint against 22-year-old Mohammad Adnan for endangering the lives of 154 others on the flight. He is a native of Mau district in Uttar Pradesh and does saree embroidery work. “We have booked an FIR in his name at Phoolpur station under Section 125 of BNS 2023 for negligent behaviour,” a cop said.
An airport source told TNIE, “The flyer is reported to have opened the door twice. The first time it happened was midway during the flight. He attempted to open the exit door and the cabin crew who saw him in the act warned him and made him shift his seat. However, just as the flight was about to land, he attempted to open the emergency handle again. When the incident was reported to the cockpit crew, they decided to abort the landing.”
The passenger was handed over to Babatpur chauki at the airport, which is an outpost of Phoolpur station, he added.
Without sharing details, an IndiGo source said, “The passenger attempted to open the emergency exit door twice. In line with the protocol to be followed in such instances, we handed him over to the police as soon as the flight landed.”
Airbus A321 flight took off at 8.22 pm from Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru. It made a safe landing at 10.35 pm at Lal Bahadur Shastri airport 20 minutes after the first landing attempt. Data on FlightRadar24 showed the flight circling above the airport as the pilot delayed landing.
The opening of emergency exit doors on planes became a national controversy after Bengaluru South MP Tejaswi Surya “accidentally” opened the door of an IndiGo flight at Chennai airport before it was scheduled to depart for Tiruchirappali on December 10, 2022. Since then, a spate of incidents in which these doors were opened by passengers have been reported across the country.
As per the rules of the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the opening of an emergency exit door is a major security violation. Deboarding and a flight ban between 30 and 60 days are among the penalties which can be levied on such passengers.