The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Confusion over number of passengers delays flight

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Jun 14, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Kochi

Confusion over number of passengers delays flight

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: The onward journey of an Indian flight from the Cochin International Airport at Nedumbassery near here on Wednesday was delayed by more than two hours after confusion over the number of passengers.

The flight, IC 596, arrived at 6.05 a.m. and was scheduled to leave for Mumbai via Kozhikode after an hour.

As per the load message received by Air-India, the ground-handling agent for the Kochi airport, from the airline Sharjah 128 passengers were bound for Kochi.

However, one passenger was found missing as only 127 passengers disembarked here.

The civil aviation security calls for the thorough checking of the entire baggage on the aircraft in such cases so as to verify whether there was any unclaimed baggage, an official associated with ground handling said.

However, even this proved futile and the message was subsequently sent to Sharjah.

Following this, the airline authorities in Sharjah made a fresh count of the ticket coupons, which revealed that a mistake in counting led to the confusion. Eventually the flight departed at 9.30 a.m.

Meanwhile, another Indian flight, IC 975, bound for Sharjah from the Kochi airport was cancelled, reportedly owing to the strike of the airline’s ground staff.

Reportedly, no ground staff of the airline reported at the airport on Wednesday.

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