New Delhi: A Mumbai jeweller has become the first person to be put on India’s no-fly list (NFL), eight months after it was enforced to keep a check on disruptive passengers.
According to a report in The Times of India, jeweller Birju Kishore Salla’s (37) had left a hijack message in the business class lavatory of a Jet Airways' flight, leading the airlines to ban him from its planes for five years.
Salla’s act resulted in forced diversion of Mumbai-Delhi flight to Ahmedabad on October 30, 2017. Incidentally, he was also the first to be booked under the stringent Anti-Hijacking Act which had replaced the vintage law of 1982.
Salla is a multi-millionaire jeweller having his office in the Zaveri Bazar area of Mumbai and a flat in a posh locality of the metropolis.
"This is the first case of an Indian carrier putting someone on the NFL. Jet Airways has informed us that after following due procedure, they have banned him (Salla) for five years with effect from November 2017 for breach of security. It is the airline's responsibility to inform other carriers and then it is up to them whether they also put the person on their NFLs. We will continue to maintain a database for such passengers," said a senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Despite repeated attempts by TOI, Jet did not comment on this issue.
On October 30 last year, Salla was flying on seat 1A of 9W 339, a Mumbai-Delhi flight. He allegedly left a note in the business class lavatory which read: "9W 339 is covered by hijackers and a/c (aircraft) should not land and (be) flown straight to POK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir). 12 ppl on board. If you put landing you can hear the noise of people dying. Don't take it as a joke. Cargo area contains explosive bombs and will blast if you land in DEL (Delhi)."
The plane was diverted to Ahmedabad where it landed safely. Checks by the bomb disposal squad found no explosive in the plane and that the note was a hoax.
The then Union Civil Aviation Minister, Ashok Gajapathi Raju, had advised airlines to put him on the no-fly list, in addition to other statutory criminal action. Under the revised civil aviation requirement (CAR), a passenger can be considered to be placed under three categories of unruly behaviour, with category three bearing the harshest punishment.
Salla has been placed under the third category. It says that if a passenger's behaviour is considered life threatening like affecting the safety of the aircraft then he or she can be banned for up to two years or more.
Unruly behaviour is probed by an internal committee set up by every domestic airline under the chairmanship of a retired District and Sessions judge.
Its members are from different scheduled airlines and passenger associations, consumer associations and retired officials of the consumer dispute redressal forum.
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