Air India Derosters Crew for B777 Door Lapse

Mumbai, Sep 23 (PTI) Air India has derostered three cabin crew members for an erroneous approach in opening the door of a Boeing 777 aircraft that led to the auto-deployment of the emergency slides, according to sources.

The incident happened with the Boeing 777 plane at the Bangalore airport after it landed from San Francisco on September 15, they said.

When contacted, an Air India spokesperson said a technical issue was reported with one of the doors not opening appropriately upon landing and the matter was attended to promptly.

"In a serious safety violation, the door of Air India's Boeing 777 aircraft that operated the flight AI 176 from San Francisco to Bangalore on September 15, was opened in armed mode when the aircraft arrived at the Bangalore airport.

"As a result of this, the emergency slides automatically got deployed," a sources told PTI.

Another source said three cabin crew members have been derostered for the lapse and an internal probe has been ordered.

However, Air India did not comment on derostering action.

The sources also said engineers were later called to remove the emergency slides.

"The damaged emergency slides had to be replaced with a new set and that resulted in the Bangalore-San Francisco flight getting delayed," one of the sources said.

In a statement, the Air India spokesperson said that on September 15, crew operating flight 176 from San Francisco to Bangalore reported a technical issue with one of the doors not opening appropriately upon landing.

"The issue was promptly attended to, passengers disembarked and the aircraft was subsequently cleared for operation," the statement said.

Further, the airline said there was no damage to the aerobridge and added that "regulatory authorities have been informed as per procedure.