Tejasvi didn’t open flight door, only filed an incident report: Annamalai

CHIKKAMAGALUR: In a fresh twist to the alleged controversy over Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya “inadvertently opening an emergency door” on the Chennai-Tiruchirapall IndiGo flight 6E 7339, Tamil Nadu BJP president K Annamalai, who was travelling along with Surya, said that the MP did not open the door and only reported it to the cabin crew.

Backing Tejasvi Surya strongly, Annamalai, who was here to take part in the inauguraton of the Chikkamagalur Utsav, said, “It was an ATR-72 aircraft where the emergency exit is in the front and the seats are also small, with no hand rest. Tejasvi Surya was sitting in the seat next to the emergency exit. People were still boarding the aircraft. After some time, he pointed me to a gap in the beading and then we called the airhostess and pointed it out to her. She then called the pilot who, as per procedure, asked all passengers to deboard after which the emergency door was properly fixed and the cabin pressurised”.

Representative image.

Further, he said, “Tejasvi Surya only filed an incident report in a prescribed form about what had happened. He did not pull anything, why would he even do that? He has travelled so many times by flight and is in a responsible position. To open to emergency door, a knob has to be rotated and pulled. Who would do all that when there are so many passengers on the plane”? he asked.

On the issue of the MP reportedly apologising for the incident, Annamalai said, “The flight was delayed for about an hour, hence Tejasvi apologised to the passengers for the inconvenience, though he was not responsible. IndiGo Airlines themselves have clarified on the issue. When the airline releases the incident report, the truth will come out. Myself and other passengers are witness to the whole incident”.

Criticising the Opposition, he said, “Our political opponents are only looking to milk the incident. It’s just bankrupt politics. The Congress in Karnataka does not even have anything to say to the people. Our government is doing good work, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is doing good work, so the opposition has nothing to speak about. Hence, they have raked up this issue. The Congress is never bothered about real issues related to citizens. They only take up such useless issues to create controversies”, he added.

On Wednesday, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told reporters on New Delhi that the emergency door of the IndiGo flight was opened by “mistake” this past December. “It is important to look at the facts. The (emergency) door was opened by mistake when the flight was on the ground and, after all checks, the flight was allowed to take off. All protocols were followed and the DGCA has investigated the matter. It was found all protocols were followed and pressurisation was also checked”, Scindia had said.