Passengers Protesting against Air India flight Diversion from MIA to CIA is Stupidity?

Passengers Protesting against Air India flight Diversion from MIA to CIA is Stupidity?

My humble question to all these plane passengers who staged a protest is that, “Is your LIFE more important than celebrating a FEAST with your family and Friends”?A person with common sense will agree and answer that Life is more important! Period. Then what was all this drama in protesting just because the flight had to be diverted from Mangaluru International airport to Kochi Airport? I do agree the anxiety of these people who had come down to celebrate Eid al-Fitr with their families on Friday morning- but when mother nature strikes, there is nothing much that the Airport officials can do, than to look for safety of the passengers-thereby divert the said flight. Surely, we don’t need another incident like the Air India Express Flight 812 which crashed on 22 May 2010, killing 158 passengers. Do you?

Sources reveal that the AIE 814 flight that was supposed to land at the Mangaluru International Airport (MIA) at 4.45 am from Dubai, was diverted to Cochin International Airport {CIA} due to inclement weather. Following this, the flight landed at CIA at around 5.55 am. Even as the AIE staff was making arrangements to take the flight back to Mangaluru, a section of passengers, especially those returning home from Dubai to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, became furious and questioned the authorities of the diversion and delay. They also held a protest and shouted slogan against the authorities inside the airport. Though the AIE authorities offered breakfast and other facilities inside the airport, passengers continued their protest near the runway, it is learnt. They were agitated that they would miss celebrating Eid al-Fitr with their families, plus raised other complaints of inconvenience.

In the meantime, it is learnt that the passengers alleged the ground unit crew switched off the air-conditioning inside the plane making it very difficult for them to sit inside the flight. However, the AIE authorities denied this allegation. As per an AIE Chief of Airport Services speaking to media had said, “We had to divert the flight since it was raining heavily in Mangaluru and the visibility was very poor. We could not land the flight in MIA and the commander diverted it to CIA. We are operating in regulated conditions of DGCA. Once the flight landed in CIA, the weather did not improve and by then the duty hours of the crew on board was over. We cannot make that commander to operate the flight again as per rules. So we had to bring another set of crew from Thiruvananthapuram. We told the passengers that we are planning 9.30 am departure. Though we tried to convince the passengers about the bad weather, there were kind of restless and uncontrollable”.

The officer further said that the passengers refused to go to the arrival hall where food was arranged. “We had made arrangements to serve food at the arrival hall, where the facility to freshen up was provided. However, they refused to come out of the airport. Later, we served food inside the aircraft. We arranged three to four air-conditioned coaches for the passengers to sit outside the aircraft. The allegations of passengers that we switched off air-conditioning in the flight are not true. Whenever an aircraft lands it and has to remain on the tarmac with passengers on board, it will be connected to ground power. Naturally, the air condition will be on,” the officer clarified.

So why were the passengers so impatient and restless. It was not the fault of the pilot nor the AIE authorities, when mother nature strikes with heavy rains or thunder/lighting filled weather. Whether it is Christmas, Deepavali, Ramzan/Eid al-Fitr, Pongal, Monthi Fest {where Catholic families get-together} or any other feasts- but feasts will come back, but a life lost will never come back. Then why all the resentment from the passengers? Safety should be the priority and not a participation in a feast. What if the pilot had decided to land the plane in the weather, and for some reason the plane skidded off the runway or crashed, resulting in injuries or fatalities- surely the pilot would have been blamed and all other allegations on him. Next time all you plane passengers, if you want to protest do it for the right reason, and NOT for this kind of instances. So frankly speaking, passengers protesting or not, the AIE authorities did the RIGHT thing by diverting the plane for the safety of the passengers. Period.

Watch Video: