Air India flight AC failure: Pilot violated SOP, will probe incident, says DGCA
The aviation watchdog said that prima facie it appears that the pilot of flight AI-880 from West Bengal's Bagdogra to Delhi violated the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
In Short
- DGCA accuses pilot of violating SOP on Bagdogra-Delhi flight.
- Air India's AI-880 took off from Bagdogra with faulty AC system.
- Few passengers even tried to use oxygen masks for fresh air.
A day after a video showing hassled passengers gasping for fresh air after the air conditioning system on their Air India flight developed a snag went viral, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) today said it'll probe the incident.
The aviation watchdog said that prima facie it appears that the pilot of flight AI-880 from West Bengal's Bagdogra to Delhi violated the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).
FLIGHT TO HELL
The video showed passengers on board the flight were seen frantically fanning themselves with safety manual cards and in-flight magazines when the aircraft landed in Delhi on Sunday at about 4:05pm on Sunday (July 2).
Passengers speaking exclusively to India Today said they discovered even before take off that the AC wasn't functioning. But when they brought this to the notice of the Air India staff, they were told that the system would work just fine after the flight takes off. But nothing happened.
For the next two hours, they relied on whatever they could get their hands on - from newspapers to instruction manuals - to keep themselves from sweating and suffocating.
A few passengers also tried to put on the oxygen masks, but these too were reportedly not working.
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