(MENAFN- Live Mint) Five Members of Parliament (MPs), including KC Venugopal of the Congress party, wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Tuesday over the incident of a Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi flight they were travelling in being diverted to Chennai and demanded action on the alleged "breach of privilege" by Air India.

Venugopal, party colleagues K Suresh, Adoor Prakash, and Robert Bruce, along with CPI(M)'s K Radhakrishnan, also wrote to Civil Aviation Minister Rammohan Naidu and demanded an immediate investigation into the incident.

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In their letter to Birla, the five MPs said they wanted to bring to his attention the matter involving a "grave breach of privilege" by Air India, arising from events on Flight AI 2455 (Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi) on 10 August.

"On the said date, we were travelling along with hundreds of other passengers. The flight, scheduled for 7:15 PM, eventually departed around 8:30 PM citing the late arrival of the incoming aircraft. From the outset, the journey was marked by prolonged turbulence. Passengers were instructed to remain strapped in, and even basic inflight services such as dinner were withheld," the MPs said.

Earlier, Venugopal had called for an inquiry into the incident involving Air India flight AI2455, which was travelling from Thiruvananthapuram to Delhi but diverted to Chennai due to a suspected technical issue.

“There should be an inquiry into the issue. An unfortunate incident happened yesterday. It was announced by the pilot that there was another aircraft on the runway when we were going to land. I spoke to DGCA as well. Let them have an inquiry. Air India is lying..."KC Venugopal , who was a passenger of AI2455, told ANI.

Critical technical fault

Midway through the flight, the pilot announced a critical technical fault – failure of the weather radar – and declared that the aircraft would be diverted to Chennai, they said.

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"This raised immediate concern since other airports such as Bengaluru and Coimbatore were closer to our location at the time. The decision to proceed to a farther airport, while allegedly 'flying blind' remains unexplained," the MPs wrote.

Upon reaching Chennai airspace, the aircraft did not land but continued to circle for more than an hour, and the reason for this prolonged holding pattern was not clarified, they said.

"Eventually, during the first landing attempt, the aircraft had to execute a sudden go-around manoeuvre from a dangerously low altitude, reportedly due to 'something', possibly another aircraft on the runway, as per the pilot's announcement. Only on the second attempt did we land safely. We were finally boarded and flown to Delhi on another aircraft past midnight," the MPs said in their letter.

"Immediately after the incident, we placed the matter in the public domain through our social media accounts, highlighting the serious safety and procedural lapses witnessed first-hand. Instead of addressing these legitimate concerns, Air India has issued public statements portraying our account as false and misleading, thereby attempting to discredit elected Members of Parliament who were fulfilling their responsibility of raising issues of public safety," they said.

"This attempt to question our credibility and publicly misrepresent our statements amounts to a direct breach of privilege, as it seeks to intimidate and deter Members from discharging their constitutional duty to raise matters affecting citizens' safety and welfare," they said.

The MPs said that flight safety is a matter of deep public concern in the wake of the recent tragic air accident in Ahmedabad and several reported mid-air technical glitches across the country. They added that rather than showing transparency and accountability, Air India has resorted to denial.

"We, therefore, request that this matter be taken up as a breach of privilege against Air India, and necessary action be initiated to safeguard the rights of Members of Parliament and to ensure that public safety concerns are addressed with seriousness and transparency," their letter to Birla said.

In their letter to the civil aviation minister, the MPs said that a time when the nation is still reeling from the recent tragic air accident in Ahmedabad and multiple reported mid-air technical incidents in recent months, such opacity from Air India is unacceptable.

"We therefore urge your ministry to order a comprehensive and time-bound investigation into this incident, covering both technical and procedural aspects, and to ensure that the findings are made public in full," they said.

"We also request that clear accountability be fixed, operational protocols for emergency diversions and runway safety be strengthened, and passengers be given truthful and timely communication in such situations," the MPs said.

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Air India said on Monday that the crew of the Thiruvananthapuram-Delhi flight that was diverted to Chennai on Sunday followed the protocols. The first landing attempt had to be aborted due to suspected foreign debrison the runway amid safety concerns raised by some Parliamentarians who were on board the aircraft.

This attempt to question our credibility and publicly misrepresent our statements amounts to a direct breach of privilege.

Aviation watchdog DGCA said the flight was diverted to Chennai due to a suspected malfunctioning of the aircraft's weather radar. The aircraft landed safely, amid some Parliamentarians who were on boardflagging safety concerns.

(With agency inputs)

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