Air India asked passengers on board to pray immediately when the cockpit was on fire.
Crew on an airliner in India is said to have asked all passengers to “pray to God” after smoke filled the cabin and cockpit while the plane was in the air.
SpiceJet, the low-cost airline, has denied the rumors, but confirmed that the flight from Goa to Hyderabad requested an emergency landing because of a fire on board.
An investigation was immediately launched by India’s federal aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to verify the incident. Flight number SG 373 with the incident happened, there were 86 passengers on board at that time.
“The plane landed safely and passengers disembarked through the emergency exit. One passenger suffered a minor scratch on his foot when disembarking, that’s all the human damage we’ve identified so far.” a DGCA official said.
A SpiceJet representative told the press that it was true that many passengers observed the cabin filled with smoke due to the fire, but many media exaggerated the incident. The crew handled the situation promptly.
One passenger on a flight who asked not to be identified shared the exact opposite, all passengers were asked to pray to God for their families, and for those who were screaming in panic, the The flight attendants tried to calm them down and didn’t forget to remind them to pray.
“The flight attendants told us to pray to God… pray for our family… What a shame. Many passengers around me panicked and started screaming,” said Srikanth M, another passenger.
But soon after the report was published, a spokesperson for SpiceJet denied the whole thing and said that this was a false rumor, the crew handled the situation very quickly in accordance with regulations and standards. strictly, while keeping all passengers calm during the process.
“There was no such thing as cabin crew making any announcements asking passengers to ‘pray to God,’ and the CVR (CVR) recording proves the same thing.” Spokesperson said.
This person added:
“Those are baseless rumors that affect the entire crew. They did all that was necessary to keep the passengers safe.”
Photos and videos shared on social media showed passengers sitting in the plane’s smoke-filled cabin and clapping their hands in celebration as the plane landed safely.
Mr Srikanth, who shared the videos on Twitter, said:
“Not true, can’t be ignored, they didn’t do what they said.”
“It took 20 minutes from there and all of us, all the passengers were scared, the smoke blackened our faces. Fortunately, we landed safely… But what happens, if something does happen and who will be responsible, this is clearly the fault of the airline and the entire crew. “. He added.
Mr Srikanth also alleges that airline employees forced them to delete photos and videos of the incident and tried to take his phone when he refused to cooperate.
Responding to this, the spokesperson said that flight attendants are required to prevent passengers from using their phones while the plane is in flight, which is their duty and nothing else.
After the plane landed safely, the rescue team arrived in time to solve the problem. It seems to be quite fortunate that no one was seriously injured.
This is believed to be the 8th case this year when before that, a SpiceJet flight had a technical problem, causing a false alarm that made all passengers faint in midair.
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