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Panel may suggest passenger identification on air ticket

Ashwini Phadnis

NEW DELHI, Oct. 24

IN an effort to ensure that only genuine passengers board flights, the S.B. Mohapatra Committee set up to examine what exactly happened to the Alliance Airways (AA) flight between Mumbai and Delhi on October 3, is likely to suggest having some form of pa ssenger identification on the air ticket itself.

``The passenger can either give their credit card number or any other form of identification which will make it easy to identify the passenger. This will help ensure that only bonafide passengers board the aircraft,'' sources connected with the inquiry t old Business Line.

Confusion prevailed on the AA flight on October 3 with initial reports suggesting that the flight had been hijacked. The Prime Minister, the Home Minister and several other senior Ministers and officials spent the better part of the night tackling the si tuation.

However, after several hours of the AA aircraft being on the ground at Delhi airport, it was discovered that the news about the hijacking was incorrect. The Government then appointed a committee headed by Mr S.B. Mohapatra, Special Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs, to find out what exactly happened on the flight.

Though the inquiry committee has not yet completed its work and is sifting through the various documents including transcripts of conversations that the crew had with the control towers in Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad, sources expressed confidence that th e report would be completed in the next ``four-to-five days.''

While sources are emphatic that the happening was not a ``mock hijack,'' they did indicate that the situation was compounded because of the chaos that prevailed and possibly the panic reaction of the crew. Sources indicated that the committee is likely t o examine other issues like why route maps for Lahore were asked for and whether clearer instructions could have helped avoid such an incident.

On the issue of whether the decision of the Indian Airlines (IA) management to derooster the crew involved in the incident pointed to lapse on part of the crew, sources said that it was purely a decision taken by IA which in no way indicated whether the crew had done the right or wrong thing.

When asked whether the decision to get the inquiry conducted by the Special Secretary (Home) instead of the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had anything to do with the annoyance that the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee, had expressed ov er the incident, sources replied in the negative.

``The inquiry is being conducted by the Special Secretary (Home) as issues concerning security are involved. The committee is examining various issues including airport security, security on the ground, air and deployment of sky marshals on flights,'' so urces said.