Intercom failure delayed doctor’s arrival

These are not allegations made by Jyotsana’s relatives or other passengers that the airport authorities can deny or dub as “exaggerated.” These are facts recorded by the medical officer on duty and officials of the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in the log books of their departments. The log extracts form the basis of an “Accident Report” prepared by the AAI.

Dr R K Chawla, who was on duty at the time of the incident of Monday morning, has written that he was informedat 2.57 am by an official of the Delhi Police Security that a child was stuck in the escalator, “on the other side of the arrival hall.” The policeman came in person because all the telephones were out of order, the doctor has said in his report. That the phones were out of order and the policeman had to run across the breadth of the international terminal building and the girl was freed after 18 minutes are just a few of the lapses at the time of the incident, sources involved in investigations point out.

In case of an emergency at the airport, the agencies involved in rescue operations which include medical services, fire-fighting, security, trauma services, airport officials, safety services and the Rapid Intervention Vehicle (RIV) are expected to respond within three minutes according to guidelines laid down by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, officials admit.

Authorities claim that mock exercises are carried out to ascertain the preparedness for emergencies. In the annual mock-upexercise, nearly 20 checks are performed. These, however, do not include accidents involving the escalator. The authorities are taking the plea that Monday’s incident was unprecedented. “This is for the first time this has happened. Frankly, no one has even thought of it,” says one of the senior-most airport officials.

He admits that at any given point of time, there are over 120 officials on duty in the airport terminal, who have designated roles to perform during the emergency.