Passenger removed from flight and arrested. A man was arrested after opening the emergency exit on a domestic flight minutes before it was to take off from an airport in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan on Tuesday. IndiGo flight 6E 6033, bound for Bengaluru in southern India, was scheduled to depart the Jodhpur airport at 10.10am local time.
The cabin crew had just begun the safety demonstration when a passenger, later identified as Axis Bank employee Siraj Kidwai, reportedly opened the emergency exit flap. Mr Kidwai claimed it was accidental and not intentional. The incident caused disruption on board, and led to a 20-minute delay in takeoff, NDTV reported.
The pilots and the cabin crew “followed standard operating protocols” and alerted airport security. “Today, during the safety briefing before the departure of flight 6E 6033 from Jodhpur to Bengaluru, a passenger opened the emergency exit flap. The crew immediately followed standard operating procedures. The passenger was disembarked and handed over to law enforcement officials for investigation,” an IndiGo spokesperson said.
Mr Kidwai was handed over to the Central Industrial Security Force for questioning. IndiGo expressed regret for the incident. “We regret the inconvenience caused to other passengers on the flight and reaffirm our commitment to maintaining the highest standards of safety and security in all our operations,” the airline said.
A similar incident took place in 2023 in South Korea when a man opened the emergency door of an Asiana Airlines aircraft just before it landed in Daegu city. The passenger said he was overwhelmed by stress after losing his job, felt suffocated and needed to exit quickly. He was arrested for violating aviation law.
