Mumbai: In a violation of norms, officials from private carrier Jet Airways’ Bhopal-bound flight 9W 7083, which was scheduled to take off from Mumbai on Friday morning, asked six of its passengers to deplane so as to accommodate 17 other passengers headed for a wedding who arrived late at the airport.
Passengers alleged that the 17 passengers were known to a politician due to which the airline defied rules and accommodated them. “The flight was overbooked i.e. there were more passengers than available seats. Norms were violated when they asked us to deplane for somebody else since those who arrive late should not be allowed to check-in and board,” said one of the six passengers asked to deplane, requesting anonymity.
A Jet Airways spokesperson said, “A technical glitch resulted in Jet Airways flight 9W 7083 (S2 4621) BOM-BHO on December 2, 2016, being overbooked above the norm. This resulted in certain confirmed guests on the flight being denied boarding. The offloaded guests, part of a larger group, refused to accept the airline’s offer of compensation/re-accommodation on alternative flights, and together with other members of the group proceeded to hold up the flight. This led to an unruly situation, necessitating intervention of law enforcement officials, causing the flight to be delayed by 90 minutes and inconveniencing other guests who were already on board the aircraft. Subsequently, all offloaded guests were duly compensated as per DGCA guidelines and the technical glitch identified and corrected for subsequent bookings. Jet Airways regrets the inconvenience caused to its guests.”
