Exclusive | 'Emergency Door Inadvertently Opened': Plane Truths of The IndiGo Flight Row

The IndiGo aircraft 7339 (ATR) was about to take off from Chennai to head towards Tiruchirapalli when the air hostess who was giving safety instructions to the passengers was interrupted suddenly. Two passengers, Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya and Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai who were onboard, told her that the emergency door had been inadvertently opened.

In an ATR, which is a small flight, the emergency door is at the front. While most seats have handles, the seats near the emergency exit do not have an armrest. Surya was lightly resting his hand on the door and after a while indicated to the air hostess that the door may have opened slightly, News18 has learnt.

“She then began to take the safety precautions that are required since the lever had been pushed down unknowingly,” said a Tamil Nadu BJP leader who is in the know of the incident.

Soon after, Surya stood up and apologised to the passengers onboard because of the delay that was being caused due to the safety protocols and pressurisation checks that were being conducted, News18 also learnt.

“As per protocol, the incident had to be given in writing to the airlines and the airport authorities and that was done as responsible citizens,” the BJP leader further said.

Surya is a first-time MP from the Bengaluru South constituency and also holds the position of the national president of the BJP Yuva Morcha, the youth wing of the BJP. The TN BJP president had accompanied Surya to address the BJYM Tamil Nadu state executive meeting in Tiruchirapalli on December 10.

The BJP MP was contacted several times over the phone and text messages by News18 but we are yet to get a response. The report will be updated as soon as a reply is received.

The opposition parties including the Congress, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and the Trinamool Congress jumped onto the allegation bandwagon, claiming that the “accidental” opening of the emergency door of the IndiGo flight by Tejasvi Surya was a huge mistake and put lives at risk.

The plane incident was first tweeted by Tamil Nadu’s electricity minister Senthil Balaji on December 29.

In his tweet in Tamil, the DMK minister makes the allegation that it was Surya who had put the lives of several IndiGo passengers at risk.

“On December 10th, the ‘photoshop’ party’s state president, as well as the youth wing’s national president, irresponsibly opened the emergency exit in a flight. As per the rules, all the passengers were de-boarded for checks. The safety of the passengers was compromised by this. The flight was delayed by three hours. Since their clan is habituated to writing apology letters, on that day, a letter was written and given. Why has the news media not taken it up?” said Balaji’s tweet.

Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala also took to Twitter on the issue.

“The BJP VIP Brats! How dare the airline complain? Is it the norm for the BJP power elite? Did it compromise passenger safety? Ohhh! U can’t ask questions about BJP’s entitled VIP’s!” he tweeted.

The TMC too posted on the social media site that the “irresponsibility of BJP MP Tejasvi Surya could have cost lives.”

Though the parties have been making the claim based on news reports and tweets by DMK leaders on the incident, the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued a statement, confirming the incident that took place a month ago but did not name the person behind it.

According to the DGCA: “A passenger travelling on Flight 6E 7339 from Chennai to Tiruchirapalli on Dec 10, 2022, accidentally opened the emergency exit during the boarding process. The passenger immediately apologised for their action. As per SOPs, the incident was logged and the aircraft underwent mandatory engineering checks, which led to a delay in the flight’s departure.”

The airline company, IndiGo, also issued a statement that “the passenger immediately apologised for their action. As per the SOPs, the incident was logged and the aircraft underwent mandatory engineering check which led to a delay in the flight’s departure.”

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