Barely ten days after a severe bird-hit incident grounded a GoAir Ahmedabad-Bengaluru flight, the passengers of Ahmedabad-Jaipur flight were up for a surprise Friday evening when two pigeons came out of the luggage shelf of the aircraft minutes before the flight was to take off.
Some passengers recorded the pigeons flying inside the aircraft while the crew members are seen shooing them away. The video clips have gone viral on social media platforms. When contacted GoAir officials confirmed that the incident occurred at around 5 pm at Ahmedabad airport when the flight (G8 702) was about to take off. Sources said that the pigeons popped up after a passenger opened the luggage shelf and it led to a commotion. The video shows pigeons flying around while passengers breaking out in laughter.
When contacted airline spokesperson said in a statement, "Two pigeons were found their way inside GoAir Ahmedabad-Jaipur flight G8 702 while passengers were on-boarding. The crew immediately got the birds shooed away outside. The flight took off as per its scheduled time of 17:00 hours. GoAir regrets any inconvenience caused to its passengers and requests the airport authorities to get rid of this menace."
GoAir officials said that keeping such menace at bay is the responsibility of Airport Authority of India (AAI) but of late such incidents have only increased. On February 18, a major bird-hit incident had grounded GoAir aircraft at city airport carrying 131 passengers to Bengaluru. Airport Director Manoj Gangal didn't respond to call and text message.
Ahmedabad airport is notorious for bird hits, stray dogs and monkey menace for last many years that pose a security threat to passengers. There are several instances of stray dogs and monkeys roaming near runaways. Recently, the airport authorities had deployed its employees near the runway in bear costumes to scare away langurs and monkeys which throng in groups.
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