Daijiworld Media Network - Mumbai (SP)

Mumbai, Jun 10: In a bizarre incident, IndiGo Airlines inadvertently left behind one of its passengers bound for Bengaluru in one of its coaches and forgot about him. A person who was bound for Bengaluru by IndiGo flight from Mumbai got into a bus that was taking passengers to the aircraft which was ready to leave to Bengaluru, at around 6.30 pm on June 4. During the short journey in the bus, he fell asleep, and apparently remained there for six hours.

After the people got off near the aircraft, the driver drove the bus back to its parking area and left it locked there. In the process, he too did not care to check whether the bus was empty or anyone was inside. The fact that a passenger was locked in the bus came to the knowledge of another driver who came to operate the same bus after a gap of about six hours. It was around midnight then.

The driver contacted Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) control room. It is said that during the questioning, the passenger said he woke out of his slumber a few hours after he fell asleep and was waiting to be rescued. The repercussions would have been serious, had the passenger developed any health complication during the period he was locked inside the bus.

The airline was supposed to ensure that everyone who went through the checkpoint at the terminal gate had boarded the flight and the figures tallied before the flight took off. Every airline scans the boarding passes and also maintains a manual check by crossing the numbers when the passengers depart the gates. The airline automatically comes to know whether all the passengers who booked the tickets have arrived and boarded the plane, and there cannot be any difference between the actual number of passengers on the flight and the number of boarding stubs collected at the gate. The staff of the airline are bound to find out the whereabouts of missing passengers if there is a difference, and that the aircraft leaves only after the figures are reconciled.

While local police and Bureau for Civil Aviation Security have taken serious note of this incident, CISF has cautioned all the airlines to see that set procedures are strictly followed without fail and incidents like the above do not happen again.