The whole IndiGo Airlines and TDP MP Diwakar Reddy issue doesn’t seem to be dying anytime soon as reports keep cropping up every day and new issues keep surfacing. The government on Monday has received two different accounts of how the MP managed to board the flight to Hyderabad last week even after he was initially denied his boarding pass.
The Airports Authority of India and Airport Director stated that the IndiGo staff allowed the MP to fly after the Airport Director asked them to. The airline offered a detailed report of the events that transpired and said they were ‘regrettably’ forced to let the MP board due to the government officials at the airport.
Reportedly, the MP’s rude behaviour continued even after he boarded the airline. The AAI report makes the whole incident seem like the airlines gladly accepted the MP on-board after being requested by the APD. The airline on the other hand offers a whole different account where the Watchdog Directorate General of Civil Aviation asked the airlines to submit a ‘factual equity report’ of the whole episode.
The airlines received instructions from the AAI chief security officer to accept the MP onto the airlines. They asked the airlines to do so on ‘the behest of the MoCA officials present at the airport’. IndiGo had no time to verify the instructions with either the CSO or the MoCA present at the airport. Initial reports stated that the MP took the help of Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju, who was present at the airport at the time of the incident, to board the flight. But it is unclear if the reports are true.
The Civil Aviation Minister himself though tweeted – I will get the entire incident at Vizag Airport enquired into to find out the exact details and ensure that lawful outcomes follow. – on June 16. As of now, the MP has been banned by seven airlines from flying and it remains to be seen how the incident will play out.
