Andhra Pradesh MP Fails to Board Air India Flight and Slaps Airline Officer
In yet one more case of VIP misbehavior, a Member of Parliament from Andhra Pradesh supposedly slapped an Air India station manager at Tirupati airport on Thursday for refuse to accept him and his relatives on a flight for which boarding had been stopped.
According to reports, an YSR Congress party MP reached the Tirupati airport about 20 to 25 minutes prior to flight departure time with some of his relatives to board AI 541 to Delhi where Parliament is in session and Member of Parliament are supposed to be in presence via Hyderabad. Boarding counters for domestic flights close at least 45 minutes prior to departure time.
Since the boarding counter had stopped for the 2:30 pm flight when the MP and his associates reached the airport, the VIP asked the station manager to put up him and his relatives on board. Expressing his incapability to do so as boarding had closed; the staff apologized to the MP. The politician flew into anger and slapped the station manager.
YSR MP Slapped Air India Staff
Other airline officials asked the victim to register complaint against the MP, he refused to do so. There were reports of MP after pacified the staff and the latter did not register a complaint. The Air India station manager was in the security hold area; supervise the flight’s attentiveness for takeoff as boarding counter had been closed. He was called out of the area to meet the MP, where he was slapped after rejecting to admit the VVIP and his relatives on board.
“Air India chairman Ashwani Lohani has exclusively directed that no flight should be postponed for any non technical reason like accommodating VIPs. Till now, politicians have treat Air India like their ‘ghar ki airline’ and done what they feel like. So coming late and expect flights to wait for them has been a general practice for VIPs. They should now get used to reporting on time or missing flights.