Amritsar: An Air India employee has been suspended after three passengers travelling on the Amritsar-Delhi-Munich route reportedly reached Germany without completing the mandatory immigration clearance in India.
The Ministry of Civil Aviation had taken note of the incident and sought an explanation from Air India. Following the action, the employee was suspended on Tuesday.
According to the information, the three passengers were issued international boarding passes at Amritsar, even though they should have been issued domestic boarding passes for their journey to Delhi. Their immigration clearance was required to be completed in Delhi before they boarded the international flight.
However, Air India staff allegedly provided the three passengers with a separate passage to the Germany-bound aircraft, allowing them to proceed without completing the required immigration process.
The three Italian citizens — Surjit Singh, Balwinder Kaur and Gurdev Singh — travelled from Amritsar to Delhi on Air India flight AI1115 during the intervening night of September 3 and 4.
They subsequently boarded Lufthansa flight LH763 to Munich at around 1.45 am on September 4, despite not completing the mandatory departure immigration process.
Taking serious note of the matter, the Ministry of Civil Aviation had asked Air India to explain why action should not be taken for allegedly violating the approved Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and failing to carry out the required checks to prevent passengers from bypassing immigration clearance.
