This morning, IndiGo received a bomb threat onboard one of its aircraft. As is the aviation safety process, the airline and the security team had to check it out; even though it might be innocuous or just a prank, it did show some pretty unfortunate details of the customer psyche, which are dangerous in this circumstance.
IndiGo’s aircraft evacuated due to a bomb scare.
IndiGo received a note this morning inside their aircraft lavatory when preparing to operate flight 6E2211 between Delhi and Varanasi. The flight was operated by 9H-SLD, an Airbus A320, which IndiGo has on wet lease from SmartLynx Airlines of Latvia. The flight is usually scheduled to depart from Delhi at 0500 IST.
The search of the plane led to no bomb being found, but a decision was made to evacuate the aircraft via slides. All the slides on the aircraft were deployed, including the overwing ones. IndiGo later issued a statement,
IndiGo flight 6E2211 operating from Delhi to Varanasi had received a specific bomb threat at Delhi airport.
All necessary protocols were followed and aircraft was taken to a remote bay as per guidelines by airport security agencies. All passengers were safely evacuated via the emergency exits.
The flight is currently undergoing inspection. Post completion of all security checks, the aircraft will be positioned back in the terminal area.
Worrisome evacuation procedures followed.
Airlines and OEMs and seat manufacturers and everyone in the aviation process make huge investments of time and effort to make the aircraft safe. The common understanding is, the plane needs to be evacuated within 90 seconds when there is the need to deploy an emergency exit scenario. Everything installed on the plane flows from that.
Here is a video of the evacuation as circulating on social media. You will see so much went wrong with this evacuation, even though, eventually, they all went home safely.
If you look at the video carefully, you will notice that almost everyone is leaving with their bags. Hey, there might be an explosive ticking somewhere on the plane, but I need to carry my snacks and laptop off the plane and hamper the exit of the next guy behind me. Or, I know this is a hoax; let me take my laptop.
Unfortunately, the crew joins in here as well. You will notice at the end of the video that someone wearing epaulettes, possibly a pilot, is coming off the plane with a bag as well.
There is this second video, where you will note almost all the people taking away their belongings with them, and a cabin crew member took a rollaboard off the plane with her.
Dramatic video shows IndiGo passengers scramble down slides after bomb threat on #IndiGo Delhi to Varanasi flight.#IndiGoFlightBombThreat #IndiGoEmergencyEvacuation#Indigoflight pic.twitter.com/sNS0wSovpM
— Republic (@republic) May 28, 2024
I’m not sure what to make of the crew’s instructions if they are going to resort to not following the instructions to the hilt. How does this specific crew expect that the passengers will follow the instructions when they don’t follow the instructions themselves?
Bottomline
An IndiGo A320 aircraft had an emergency evacuation this morning at Delhi Airport. A bomb threat was discovered in the lavatory right before takeoff, activating the necessary procedures. Luckily, it was a hoax. However, all passengers had to evacuate via emergency slides, and they unfortunately took their bags along. Not only that, but even members of the crew took their bags along, not following the correct evacuation process.
What do you think of this IndiGo evacuation?
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Hi Ajay,
Thank you for sharing this and this is quite unfortunate that the folks were leaving with their cabin baggage despite being told repeatedly to leave your baggage behind as it would slow down the evacuation..
But what is even worse is that the crew themselves were taking their cabin baggage too !
When the crew also cannot follow procedures, how can the pax be expected to follow them ?
I understand that we tend to get cabin baggages of all sizes and try to stow them in the overhead bins so as to minimize time taken to collect it from the baggage belt, but then the rule to keep your cabin bags and not to collect it with you during an emergency procedure is there for a reason; It is there so that people can evacuate quickly within 90 seconds and if there are multiple paxes trying to collect their cabin baggage, will that not slow down the evacuation ?
Had the aircraft been on fire, would the pax still insist on collecting their bags and delay the evacuation ?
This is a clear violation of the procedures and there has to be a fine on the pax who got their cabin baggage as well as the crew
Should an unfortunate incident like JAL at Haneda happen, it would be catastrophic! I hope DGCA & Aero Civic Sense prevail.
Hope DGCA brings rule to fine people with bags.
And these hoax threat is very bad, loss for airlines, loss of passenger time and inconvenience and the trauma and stress they would have to go through.
Punishment is severe but still people do such activities.