‘IndiGo yet to apologise… airline’s fault’: Kin of passenger killed in Santacruz hotel fire

Following this, the airline booked Kantilal on the next flight that was scheduled to depart around 2 am on August 28 from Mumbai. As the layover period was close to 24 hours, IndiGo officials transferred him and some other passengers to Galaxy Hotel in Santacruz, which is around 1 km away from the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA).

The hotel in Santacruz where the fire broke out. (Express Photo)

The next day (August 27), around 1.17 pm, a fire broke out in the hotel, in which Kantilal lost his life. Kishan Halai (28) and Rupal Vekaria (25), who were also travelling from Ahmedabad to Nairobi via Mumbai on the same flight and were allotted a room in that hotel also died.

It has been 10 days since the tragedy and family members of the deceased are yet to receive a formal apology from IndiGo. Also, the airline is yet to come out with a formal statement and it was only after The Indian Express contacted it on Thursday that it issued a press statement stating that the matter is currently being investigated.

Mumbai Fire Brigade (MFB) officials have told The Indian Express that the hotel lacked safety measures and wasn’t fire-compliant and its operations have been suspended.

“Till today, nobody has reached out to us. After we came to know about the mishap, I rushed to Mumbai and contacted airline officials. They only said that they were sorry for what happened and didn’t do anything else. Since then, I have sent them multiple emails and I haven’t received any reply. I only got a call from one of their executives, who said that the matter is being investigated,” Dipti Vara, niece of Kantilal, told The Indian Express on Thursday.

“The 45-minute delay was the fault of the airline. If the flight wouldn’t have been delayed, my uncle would be alive. The worst part is that it has been 10 days since the incident happened and IndiGo hasn’t come out with any statement nor have they apologised. There is no sign that they are even concerned about this issue,” Dipti said.

Kantilal is survived by his wife Sangeeta and children Meeth (16) and Shikha (12).

When contacted, Kishan’s brother Nilkunj said that he was yet to hear from the authorities.

Kishan and Rupal were supposed to get married in February 2024. Kishan hailed from Rampar village in Gujarat and he along with his fiancee came to India from Nairobi in July to attend a family function. The couple stayed back for a month to shop for their wedding.

Meanwhile, the kin of the deceased have sent out legal notices of claim for compensation under the conditions of Carriage By Air Act 1972 and Air Passenger Charter to InterGlobe Aviation Limited, which runs IndiGo airlines.

“The carrier is liable for damage sustained in the event of the death or wounding of a passenger or any other bodily injury suffered by a passenger, if the accident which caused the damage so sustained took place on board the aircraft or in the course of any of the operations of embarking or disembarking,” states the Carriage By Air Act.

This Act is drafted in line with the lines of the Montreal Convention, which is a multilateral treaty adopted to address compensation for the victims of air disasters.

The air passenger charter of the Ministry of Civil Aviation also states, “In case of death of or bodily injury to a passenger on board an aircraft, the airline is liable to pay damages up to 113,100 Special Drawing Rights (SDR) to a passenger.”

An SDR is an international reserve monetary currency that has been created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and 1 SDR amounts close to Rs 111.

“There is sheer negligence and compromise on the safety standards on part of your company for onboarding hotels like Galaxy, without checking minimum safety standards and civil aviation requirements. Therefore, your company is called upon to compensate the immediate family member of the deceased within 14-days of receipt of this notice of claim,” reads the legal notice sent to the company.

“The victim’s checked-in luggage was with the airline operators as they didn’t return it since the passengers were in a layover and had a connecting flight in less than 24-hours. This shows that the passengers were in the middle of the embarkation and disembarkation process and their safety was solely the airline’s responsibility. The airline company is solely responsible for this mishap and they will have to compensate us legally, morally and ethically,” advocate Arjun Amanchi, who is representing the families, told this newspaper.

When contacted, a spokesperson for IndiGo issued a press statement saying, “Our heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the departed souls who lost their lives in this unfortunate and sad incident at the hotel. We, as an airline, have a defined process of selecting hotels for accommodating passengers for layovers due to cancelled or delayed flights. Our contracts ensure an obligation on our service providers to comply with all applicable laws and regulations.  The matter is currently being investigated…”

Meanwhile, aviation and legal experts stated that the families deserve to claim compensation.

Vipul Saxena, an aviation expert and a former pilot, said, “If an airline company is transferring passengers on transit in a hotel, then it’s their responsibility to ensure that the hotel is fire and safety compliant in all respects before checking in the passengers. Here, if the hotel didn’t have fire-compliant measures in place, then the airline company is responsible for the mishap as it was their job to check the measures before implementing them.”

“The process of checking in passengers in low-cost hotels is a cost-cutting approach for the airline companies. They should have put the transit passengers in similar type of hotels where they accommodate their pilots and cabin crews,” said Aditya Pratap, a practising advocate in the Bombay High Court (HC).

A senior official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), on the condition of anonymity, told The Indian Express, “The decision to push for compensation will be taken by us after the detailed fact-finding report is submitted to us by the fire brigade. The investigation is currently underway and we are expecting them to submit us the report within next one or two days.”

Earlier in November 2022, during a routine inspection, civic officials had found out that the hotel was operating without a fire-compliant certificate from the local authorities. Following which the local ward office had issued it a notice. However, it didn’t reply to the letter and later the civic body had approached the court.

“There was a certain violation of rules in the property for which we had cut down the electric and water supply lines to suspend the hotel from operating. The flames erupted from the air-condition duct after the AC was switched on, soon after which sparks started to fly out from there,” said an MFB official.

Besides the deceased, two more persons were injured in the fire on August 27. The blaze broke out on the second floor and later spread to the first floor below and third floor. The flames remained confined within the electrical ducts, wiring units and cables. The deceased were staying in room numbers 204 and 304.