Flyer arrested for smoking under aircraft’s wings

A month after Vistara Airline offloaded a flyer after he was found to have smoked in the aircraft washroom aboard a Mumbai-Delhi-Varanasi flight, a 26-year-old man from Ahmedabad was arrested at the Mumbai airport on Wednesday for allegedly lighting a cigarette below the wings of an Indigo flight that was about to take off.

The incident occurred around 6 pm, when the accused, Hardik Patel, got off the airport coach and instead of boarding the flight (6E 243) to Ahmedabad, lit a cigarette while standing under the aircraft wing, which houses the vent, apart from outer and inner fuel tanks.

Sources at the Mumbai airport said that airline's ground staff panicked, as Patel's action could have led to a major accident, but he refused to stub out the cigarette, forcing the staff to summon the CISF personnel.

"The flyer was detained and handed over to the domestic airport police. He was produced in a court on Thursday afternoon and released on bail," a CISF official said.

Section 25A of Aircraft Rules framed by aviation regulator Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) state that smoking or use of an appliance emitting flame or producing a spark is not be permitted within 30 mts of the aircraft or fuelling equipment.