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Journalism of Courage
On Monday (January 9), a GoFirst flight from Bengaluru to Delhi took off leaving 55 passengers who had boarding passes, stranded inside a bus on the tarmac. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday issued a show-cause notice to the airline with two weeks to respond.
What happened at Bengaluru airport on Monday morning?
GoFirst flight G8116 from Bengaluru to Delhi departed at its scheduled time of 6.30 am without 55 passengers, who were left behind in the bus. The passengers had their boarding passes, and their checked-in baggage had been loaded onto the aircraft. The issue came to light only after passengers tweeted about this incident.
How did such a thing happen?
On Monday morning, GoFirst was ferrying passengers booked on flight G8116 in four separate buses from the terminal building to the aircraft.
While three of those buses had more than 50 passengers each, the fourth bus had only 5-6 passengers. A message about this bus was conveyed to the ground staff positioned near the aircraft. It was conveyed that this bus would be the last ferrying the passengers.
While the buses were being driven to the aircraft, the third bus with 55 passengers was held up somewhere. Meanwhile, the fourth bus, with 5-6 passengers, reached the aircraft.
Assuming this was the last bus of passengers booked on the flight, the airline announced the completion of boarding, even as 55 passengers were stranded on the tarmac.
Who is to be blamed for this mix-up?
According to the DGCA, in this case, multiple mistakes such as lack of proper communication, coordination, reconciliation, and confirmation resulted in a highly avoidable situation.
Industry experts said that the ground staff are potentially to blame, as is the lead cabin crew, who is in charge of the cabin and has a list of passengers booked on the flight. They also said that such negligence may raise potential safety issues, and the show-cause notice by the regulator will help improve compliance.
