<p>In a minor incident, which could have proved costly, on Sunday, an overhead air condition compartment panel in an Air India flight from Port Blair (Andaman) to Chennai collapsed.<br />The panel of the economy class flight IC-550 above seats 2D and 2F gave in just as the aircraft touched down at the Chennai airport, injuring none. A team of 20 defence journalists from Bangalore were among passengers on the same flight.<br /><br />However it could have been a costly affair for the 180-odd passengers had the panel given in while in air, as it would have increased the cabin pressure, making it harder to breathe.<br />Some of the passengers onboard told Deccan Herald that the problem was probably spotted at the Veer Savarkar International Airport, Port Blair, however, the engineers left as passengers began to board the aircraft.<br /><br />Providing thrust to their interpretation was the air hostess’ efforts to keep the aforementioned seats vacant through out the journey. Also, the airconditioning in the aircraft was not completely functional through out the two hour journey.<br /><br />Even as the air hostess tried keeping the seats vacant, an unoccupied window seat in an otherwise full aircraft was too much to resist for some of the passengers, of whom one occupied the seat.<br /><br />However, the passenger was alert enough to immediately hold on to the falling panel preventing “further damage”.<br /><br />What left some of the passengers perplexed was that the incident could have been avoided if the cabin crew members and the technical staff at the Savarkar airport not decided to fly with the glitch.<br /><br />Further, the onboard pilotsaid that he was unaware of such a problem.</p>
<p>In a minor incident, which could have proved costly, on Sunday, an overhead air condition compartment panel in an Air India flight from Port Blair (Andaman) to Chennai collapsed.<br />The panel of the economy class flight IC-550 above seats 2D and 2F gave in just as the aircraft touched down at the Chennai airport, injuring none. A team of 20 defence journalists from Bangalore were among passengers on the same flight.<br /><br />However it could have been a costly affair for the 180-odd passengers had the panel given in while in air, as it would have increased the cabin pressure, making it harder to breathe.<br />Some of the passengers onboard told Deccan Herald that the problem was probably spotted at the Veer Savarkar International Airport, Port Blair, however, the engineers left as passengers began to board the aircraft.<br /><br />Providing thrust to their interpretation was the air hostess’ efforts to keep the aforementioned seats vacant through out the journey. Also, the airconditioning in the aircraft was not completely functional through out the two hour journey.<br /><br />Even as the air hostess tried keeping the seats vacant, an unoccupied window seat in an otherwise full aircraft was too much to resist for some of the passengers, of whom one occupied the seat.<br /><br />However, the passenger was alert enough to immediately hold on to the falling panel preventing “further damage”.<br /><br />What left some of the passengers perplexed was that the incident could have been avoided if the cabin crew members and the technical staff at the Savarkar airport not decided to fly with the glitch.<br /><br />Further, the onboard pilotsaid that he was unaware of such a problem.</p>
