Aviation Ministry’s Show Cause Notice To Mumbai Airport, IndiGo On “Eating On Tarmac” Incident

After a video of passengers eating on the tarmac at Mumbai Airport went viral on social media, Ministry of Civil Aviation’s Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) issued show-cause notices to IndiGo and Mumbai Airport.

News agency ANI reported that Union Minister of Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia held a meeting with all ministry officials at midnight yesterday.

In the case of both notices, the ministry has asked for replies by January 16. If replies are not received in the given time then enforcement action including financial penalty will be initiated.

In the notice, Ministry pointed that both Indigo and Mumbai airport are responsible for the situation and criticised them for not being “proactive in anticipating the situation and making the appropriate facilitation arrangements for passengers at the airport”.

“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,” the statement added.

The concerning incident occurred on January 14 when the IndiGo flight 6E2195 from Goa to Delhi, diverted to Mumbai due to low visibility conditions. “The flight was diverted to Mumbai due to low-visibility conditions in Delhi. We sincerely apologise to our customers and are currently looking into the incident. We will take necessary steps to avoid any such instances in the future,” IndiGo said.

The twelve hour delay posed the exhausted passengers to sit and eat on the airport tarmac, a few steps away from the IndiGo plane.