Man misses flight after dozing off in shuttle bus for 6 hours

INCIDENT HIGHLIGHTS SECURITY LAPSES AS AIRLINE DID NOT REALISE THAT A FLYER WHO HAD CHECKED IN WAS MISSING

NEW DELHI : A passenger nodded off on an airport shuttle bus and missed his flight but nobody noticed the sleeping man for at least six hours at the Mumbai airport earlier this month, officials said Friday.

The June 4 incident also highlights multiple security lapses at the busy terminal, as the bus staff and airline crew didn’t realise that a passenger who had checked in was missing till another driver noticed the man locked up in the bus.

Police and Bureau for Civil Aviation Security were informed about the lapses, the Central Industrial Security Force, which is responsible for the security of airports across the country, has said.

Vinoy Prem was to board an IndiGo flight (6E 799) to Bengaluru from Mumbai airport’s domestic terminal 1 and boarded the shuttle with other passengers at about 6.30pm, sources said.

“This passenger sat at the back seat and probably fell asleep. At the ladder point, all passengers deboarded except him,” the source said.

Without checking the bus, the driver parked the vehicle at the maintenance area.

On the ladder, the airline crew, too, didn’t realise that a passenger was missing though they have to tally their manifest and travellers’ boarding cards.

“The boarding pass is checked at the boarding gate and then airlines are suppose to check it at the ladder point as well,” said a CISF official whose team was called in at midnight when another driver noticed the passenger locked in the bus .

The airlines are responsible for their passengers once boarding cards are issued, the CISF official said. The bar code on the card allows airlines to identify which passenger is missing.

“It was a lapse on the part of airline and we have told them,” the CISF official said.