Air India flight diverted: 5 MPs write to Lok Sabha Speaker alleging 'breach of privilege' by airline

New Delhi: Five MPs, including K C Venugopal of the Congress, wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday over the incident of a Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi flight they were travelling in being diverted to Chennai and demanded action on alleged "breach of privilege" by Air India.

Venugopal and party colleagues K Suresh, Adoor Prakash and Robert Bruce, along with CPI(M)'s K Radhakrishnan also wrote to Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu and demanded an immediate investigation into the incident.

In their letter to Birla, the five MPs said they wanted to bring to his attention the matter involving a "grave breach of privilege" by Air India, arising from events on Flight AI 2455 (Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi) on August 10.

"On the said date, we were travelling along with hundreds of other passengers. The flight, scheduled for 7:15 PM, eventually departed around 8:30 PM citing the late arrival of the incoming aircraft. From the outset, the journey was marked by prolonged turbulence. Passengers were instructed to remain strapped in, and even basic inflight services such as dinner were withheld," the MPs said.

Midway through the flight, the pilot announced a critical technical fault -- failure of the weather radar -- and declared that the aircraft would be diverted to Chennai, they said.

"This raised immediate concern since other airports such as Bengaluru and Coimbatore were closer to our location at the time. The decision to proceed to a farther airport, while allegedly 'flying blind' remains unexplained," the MPs wrote.

Upon reaching Chennai airspace, the aircraft did not land but continued to circle for more than an hour and the reason for this prolonged holding pattern was not clarified, they said.

"Eventually, during the first landing attempt, the aircraft had to execute a sudden go-around manoeuvre from a dangerously low altitude, reportedly due to 'something', possibly another aircraft on the runway, as per the pilot's announcement. Only on the second attempt did we land safely. We were finally boarded and flown to Delhi on another aircraft past midnight," the MPs said in their letter.

"Immediately after the incident, we placed the matter in the public domain through our social media accounts, highlighting the serious safety and procedural lapses witnessed first-hand. Instead of addressing these legitimate concerns, Air India has issued public statements portraying our account as false and misleading, thereby attempting to discredit elected Members of Parliament who were fulfilling their responsibility of raising issues of public safety," they said.

"This attempt to question our credibility and publicly misrepresent our statements amounts to a direct breach of privilege, as it seeks to intimidate and deter Members from discharging their constitutional duty to raise matters affecting citizens' safety and welfare," they said.

In the wake of the recent tragic air accident in Ahmedabad and several reported mid-air technical glitches across the country, flight safety is a matter of deep public concern, Venugopal and the four other MPs said, adding that rather than showing transparency and accountability, Air India has resorted to denial.

"We, therefore, request that this matter be taken up as a breach of privilege against Air India, and necessary action be initiated to safeguard the rights of Members of Parliament and to ensure that public safety concerns are addressed with seriousness and transparency," their letter to Birla said.

In their letter to the civil aviation minister, the MPs said that a time when the nation is still reeling from the recent tragic air accident in Ahmedabad and multiple reported mid-air technical incidents in recent months, such opacity from Air India is unacceptable.

"We therefore urge your ministry to order a comprehensive and time-bound investigation into this incident, covering both technical and procedural aspects, and to ensure that the findings are made public in full," they said.

"We also request that clear accountability be fixed, operational protocols for emergency diversions and runway safety be strengthened, and passengers be given truthful and timely communication in such situations," the MPs said.

Tagging both the letters, Venugopal said, "The harrowing experience we faced on our flight from Trivandrum to Delhi (AI2455) should serve as yet another wake up call for Air India, DGCA and the Civil Aviation Ministry to address the glaring lapses that result in such grave incidents." "Air India’s response to our concern was to label them as false -- which is an attempt at discrediting MPs who are raising genuine concerns regarding safety of air travel. Along with MPs Kodikkunil Suresh, Adoor Prakash, Robert Bruce and K. Radhakrishnan, have written to the Hon’ble Speaker regarding this Breach of Privilege on part of Air India," he said.

"We have also written to @MoCA_GoI demanding an immediate investigation into the incident," he said.

Air India on Monday had said the crew of the Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi flight that was diverted to Chennai on Sunday followed the protocols and the first landing attempt had to be aborted due to suspected foreign debris presence on the runway amid safety concerns raised by some Parliamentarians who were on board the aircraft.

Aviation watchdog DGCA said the flight was diverted to Chennai due to suspected malfunctioning of the weather radar of the aircraft, which landed safely, amid some Parliamentarians who were on board the plane flagging safety concerns.