BJP's Tejasvi Surya opened emergency exit of IndiGo flight; let off with apology letter: Sources

In an action that could have severely compromised the safety of passengers, Bangalore South MP and BJP Yuva Morcha chief, Tejasvi Surya, is said to have opened the emergency exit of the Chennai-Tiruchirapalli passenger flight operated by budget airline IndiGo on December 10 as the aircraft was being readied for take-off.

Surya, who was travelling to Tiruchirapalli for the executive meeting of Tamil Nadu BJYM from Chennai along with state BJP chief K Annamalai, was allowed to board the same aircraft after an “apology letter”, leading to questions whether IndiGo and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) followed the rule book which says opening the emergency door is a “punishable offence.”

Aviation experts also sought to know how a passenger, who compromised the safety of others, was let off without any action and why it took over a month for authorities concerned to come public on the incident. They also recalled that people who had opened the emergency exits in the past had been booked by law enforcing authorities.

The incident, which was being murmured in the political circles for the past few weeks, received public attention on Tuesday after former Karnataka-cadre IAS officer Sasikanth Senthil took to Twitter to ask what happened aboard 6E7339 on December 10. “It takes only one call from @MoCA_GoI (Civil Aviation Ministry) to silence things????? We could have lost 70 lives,” he wrote.

Hours later, DGCA and IndiGo confirmed the incident but refused to identify the passenger. DGCA, which has ordered an inquiry, also said the crew did reinstall the door and conducted pressurisation checks before allowing the aircraft with around 70 passengers to fly.

Sources at the Chennai Airport and a passenger told DH that the person in question is Surya and the aircraft they flew was an ATR.

“The flight was ready for take-off when Surya pulled the lever leading to opening of the emergency exit. We were immediately disembarked from the plane and the flight was delayed by over two hours,” the passenger told DH. He added that Surya did apologise to passengers for his action in the bus in which they waited for about two hours before being allowed to board the aircraft. Efforts to reach Surya didn’t fructify.

Surya, it is said, wrote the apology letter while waiting in the bus like other passengers and was allotted a different seat when he boarded again along with co-passenger Annamalai. “The flight was actually taxiing from the bay to the runway when Surya pulled the lever. The flight underwent several checks while we were inside the bus,” he added.

IndiGo said the passenger “accidentally opened the emergency exit” during the boarding process and that he apologised for their action. “As per SOPs, the incident was logged and the aircraft underwent mandatory engineering checks, which led to a delay in the flight’s departure,” IndiGo added.

The incident comes close on the heels of complaints that airlines operating in India fail to report instances of compromise of passenger safety on time.

DMK spokesperson K T Arasakumar, who also travelled on the flight, said the passengers were offloaded from the flight just before take-off. “We didn’t know what happened, but the flight took off only after two hours,” he said.

Tamil Nadu Electricity Minister V Senthil Balaji, who is involved in a running battle with Annamalai, had alleged on December 29 in a tweet that two people from the BJP “played” with the emergency exit of an aircraft. On Tuesday, he demanded an explanation from Annamalai on the incident.