Comments
A mid-air wedding on board a chartered SpiceJet aircraft in Madurai has landed the airline in a tight spot, for flouting Covid norms, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) probing the incident.
The ‘marriage flight’ took off from Madurai International Airport at 7 am on Sunday and the couple tied the knot as the aircraft was over the Madurai Meenakshi Amman Temple.
There were 161 invitees on the flight with Covid negative certificates. Most of the passengers, guests and relatives, were reportedly without masks and without social-distancing in the video footage.
The Madurai Airport director said that he had no idea on the planned marriage, say media reports.
‘Crew off-rostered’
“Crew has been off rostered. the airline was directed to lodge complaints against those not following Covid appropriate behaviour with relevant authorities. We will conduct a detailed enquiry and based on the outcome, and shall take further action,” DGCA chief Arun Kumar told BusinessLine .
‘Briefed repeatedly’
A SpiceJet spokesperson in a statement said the Boeing 737 was chartered by a travel agent in Madurai on May 23 for a group of passengers for a joy ride post their wedding. The client was clearly briefed on Covid guidelines to be followed and denied permission for any activity on board.
The group was repeatedly briefed on the safety norms to be followed by the operating cabin crew and advised to follow the protocols laid down by DGCA including restrictions on photography and videography.
Despite repeated requests and reminders, the passengers did not follow Covid guidelines, and the airline is taking appropriate action as per rules, the statement said.
‘How security allowed?’
Aviation Safety consultant Mohan Ranganathan in a tweet said, “the DGCA taking action against crew is a joke. They should punish the airline. A question for the CISF! How did they allow all those garlands etc and pax without masks?
“The airline would have filed a flight plan for the flight- sector and altitude crew would have been told about circling over the temple. Making the crew take the blame is a cowardly act,” he added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.