Man Bound for Dhaka from Bahrain Lands in Mangalore Airport!

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jun 1: One can call it a collective failure resulting in a filmy kind of scene enacted in a Bahrain-Mangalore flight on Friday May 25. A passenger who was supposed to go to Dhaka on Gulf Airways boarded the Air India Express and landed up at Bajpe Airport!

It has come light, though a week late, that Mohammed Alam Mamtazuddin was to go to Dhaka following the death of his son. He was supposed to board Gulf Airways but instead boarded Air India Express from Bahrain to Mangalore and landed up at Bajpe Airport on May 25 evening.

Luckily, the incident had a happy ending as Air India Express bought a ticket to the man and ensured he is sent back to his destination without much delay. But this lapse by the man in boarding the wrong airlines raises many security questions and the collective failure of all those involved, the Air India Express, the ground handling staff, the airline crew and the passenger himself.

The passenger can be at least excused because he was in a troubled state of mind, as he was going back to Dhaka to attend the funeral of his son and naturally he might not have applied his reasoning while boarding the wrong airline. However, the failure of others cannot be taken lightly because it exposes the laxity in the security at our airlines.

It is nothing but laxity at various levels from issuing boarding pass up to boarding the flight which has resulted in such a bungle exposing the chink in the armor of our security at airport and airplanes. Even the passenger was at fault as he failed to notice anything amiss and even must have not paid any attention to announcements while inside the aircraft.

It is said that the security for Air India at Bahrain is handled by a private firm and this has been the case with other private airlines also. Luckily, it happened to be a genuine case of the man choosing the wrong aircraft. One only shudders to think if anti-national elements had taken advantage of such a major lapse in the security.

According to reliable sources it has now come to be known that Air India Express was informed about the lapse by the flight commander and Air India Express officials in turn had informed the immigration officials at Bajpe Airport. These sources also say that because of this advance information Air India officials had arrived at the Airport to set right the faux pas, when the flight from Bahrain had arrived. When and how did the flight crew came to know about the mistake or whether it was noticed by the immigration officials by fluke is not clear.

In a face-saving exercise Air India officials responded positively and considerately, in view of the plight of the man who was bereaving his son. They sent him back to Dubai by Air India Express and also bought his ticket to Dhaka from Dubai and ensured he reached his destination safely. Though ‘all is well’ and the incident had a happy ending it certainly raises question about the safety or the lack of it at our airports and aircraft.