&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "3 Italians fly from Delhi to Munich without immigration clearance; Air India gets notice on major security lapse")
In a major lapse in Air India's passenger-handling system, three Italian nationals flew from New Delhi's international airport to Munich without undergoing mandatory immigration clearanc. The Ministry of Civil Aviation has issued a show-cause notice to the airline, seeking a response within seven days. The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) called an urgent meeting of senior officials from the home and civil aviation ministries and other stakeholders on Tuesday evening the discuss the matter.
What actually happened?
The incident took place in the early hours of September 4, after the three passengers arrived in Delhi from Amritsar on Air India flight AI-1115 at around 12:50 am. About an hour later, at approximately 1:45 am, they boarded Lufthansa flight LH-763 to Munich, without passing through immigration. According to the Ministry of Civil Aviation's notice, the three passengers were travelling under Air India's hub-and-spoke arrangement, under which passengers from smaller airports are flown to a major hub before connecting to an international flight. In this case, the passengers travelled from Amritsar to Delhi and were issued "D" or domestic boarding passes for the Air India flight. At Amritsar, they were also issued boarding passes for their onwards Lufthansa flight to Munich.
In its notice to Air India, the ministry questioned how these passengers were given the additional boarding passes. Ideally, the passengers should have been identified as international travellers upon arrival in Delhi and diverted from the domestic passenger flow to immigration. Instead, according to the ministry, they were taken from Gate 39 to the International-to-International Transfer Area. From there, they proceeded to the departure area and boarded the Lufthansa flight without reaching the immigration checkpoint.
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What questions has the ministry raised?
The show-cause notice seeks detailed answers from Air India on several aspects of the incident. First, how a D-category boarding passes were able to enter the International-to-International transfer area. Second, why they were not separated from domestic passengers after arriving in Delhi. Third, why the passengers were issued boarding passes for their onwards Lufthansa flight at Amritsar. Fourth, what was the role of its personnel and SATS staff involved in handling and transferring the passengers. It has further sought details about the presence and actions of the designated nodal officer and monitoring team at the time of the incident,
