GoAir flyer tries to open exit gate mid air

Dozens of passengers aboard an aircraft had a providential escape after a fellow passenger tried to open its exit door in midair mistaking it for a toilet door. The traveller told the police that he was travelling by plane for the first time and was not aware about the facilities of the aircraft.

Police said the passenger identified as Abhijit Kumar had boarded the GoAir flight at Delhi airport and was travelling to Patna on Saturday night when he wanted to use the toilet.

Instead of opening the door of the toilet, the passenger, however, moved towards the exit gate and tried to open it. Passengers raised an alarm and, instantly, the crew members rushed towards the exit gate and pulled the man aside. Airport sources, however, added the gate of an exit door of an airborne plane cannot be opened due to cabin pressure.

Finally, when the plane landed at the Jayaprakash Narayan International airport in Patna, the passenger was taken into custody by security officials who later handed him over to the local police after preliminary interrogation.

During the questioning, the passenger told the police that he was travelling by plane for the first time and didn’t know about the location of toilet inside the plane. “I mistook the word lavatory written near the exit gate as the door of the toilet and hence tried to open it. I had no other intention as such,” the youth told the police.

After getting a satisfactory statement, the police released him on personal bond on Sunday. “We have verified his statements. He works in a prominent bank and had boarded the GoAir flight travelling from New Delhi to Patna. It’s also true that he is a first-time flyer,” Mohammad Sanowar Khan, a senior police official, said.