Click to play videoMumbai: The pilots of an Air India flight in Mumbai ordered evacuation when the engine of the aircraft carrying 213 passengers caught fire on Friday morning. It was by the book till then but then a serious safety violation allegedly took place.
Aircraft attendants allegedly opened the emergency chutes on both sides of the aircraft while the fire was still on. Aviation safety rules say the attendants should not have opened chutes on the side of the aircraft on fire. Air India insists the chute on the side of the aircraft on fire was opened after the evacuation was over.
"To suggest that our cabin crew irresponsibly opened the chutes on the left side (of the aircraft) is wrong and absolutely wrong. The chutes were first opened on the right side. The entire evacuation was conducted on the right side and it was later after all passengers had got out that the chute on the left side was opened," said Jitendra Bhargava, Executive Director of Air India.
But sources in the Director General of Civil Aviaiton (DGCA) tell CNN-IBN opening both chutes--even after passenger evacuation--increased the danger of the fire spreading and officials responsible for the error should be suspended immediately.
Bhargava said a four-member committee will investigate the fire and fix “accountability” but insisted Air India employees were not at fault. "Neither the pilots nor the cabin crew are at fault at all. In fact they need to be commended for their presence of mind and the pace at which they conducted the evacuation. Pilots and cabin crew followed the norms as prescribed by the DGCA,” he said.
The AI-829 flight was bound for Riyadh from the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport. After smoke and fire was noticed from the engine at around 1030 hrs IST, passengers were evacuated by making them slide through the exit doors and they were later taken to the terminal building.
On the heels of a technical snag on a Bangalore-bound flight and a hydraulic system failure on a Delhi-Nagpur flight, Friday's incident could very well have turned into a huge mishap if not for the presence of mind of the captain or call it God's providence.
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