Govt Pulls Up Indigo, Mumbai Airport After Viral Video Shows Fliers Eating On Tarmac

After a video of passengers eating on the tarmac at Mumbai Airport went viral on social media, the Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia held a meeting with all ministry officials at midnight yesterday. In the early hours on Tuesday, MoCA's Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued show cause notices to Indigo and Mumbai Airport.According to the notices, “both Indigo and MIAL were not proactive in anticipating the situation and making the appropriate facilitation arrangements for passengers at the airport”.

For instance, “the aircraft was allotted a remote bay C-33 (instead of a Contact Stand - an aircraft parking stand that is suitable for walking passengers to and from an aircraft from an allocated boarding gate), which further added to passenger woes and deprived them the opportunity to avail basic facilities like rest rooms and refreshments at the terminal”.Delayed flights, dense fog and hassled passengers have been grabbing headlines for the past few days in India. And through all this chaos, budget airlines IndiGo has been thrown into the limelight. The domestic carrier is facing flak over several flight disruptions owing to intense fog in Delhi and other places in northern India and its handling of passengers.Now, the Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a show-cause notice to IndiGo Airlines and Mumbai Airport after a video of passengers eating food on the tarmac spread online on Monday (15 January).

The passengers of a Goa-Delhi flight that was diverted to Mumbai owing to poor visibility in the National Capital on Sunday (14 January) were seen dining on the apron upon disembarking. In the video that went viral on social media, flyers can be seen seated on the tarmac and eating food next to the parked IndiGo aircraft. The incident sparked safety concerns as the apron is designated for aircraft activities.

The ground staff connected the aircraft with the stepladder and the passengers were asked to deboard. As the angry flyers disembarked, they refused to enter the terminal building of the Mumbai airport, HT reported.Many disgruntled passengers demanded the flight be taken directly to Delhi. Videos showed some flyers with their food packets, eating on the apron.An airline official told HT that Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel had to be called to remove them from the tarmac and take them to a safety zone.The flight finally took off for Delhi at 2.39 am on Monday.

IndiGo said it was aware of the incident and apologised to the customers, saying it was “currently looking into the incident”.According to Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport, the passengers were “irate” due to the flight delay in Goa and left the aircraft as soon as it landed in Mumbai.