Monk Needing Fresh Air Opens Plane's Emergency Exit

[Naim 6]

What a cool frood!

 

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November 24, 2009 12:05 PM

 

Monk Needing Fresh Air Opens Plane's Emergency Exit

 

By P.Vijian

 

NEW DELHI, Nov 24 (Bernama) -- A Buddhist monk who opened the emergency exit of an airplane just before take off because he wanted some fresh air forced the plane to delay its flight for almost seven hours at Kolkata airport on Monday morning.

 

As result of his action, the airport authorities evacuated all the passengers onboard and grounded the plane for nearly seven hours until all the safety drills were completed.

 

The Hindu newspaper reported that the bizarre incident happened on Air India's flight IC-727 that was heading to Yangon with 135 passengers on board.

 

The monk from Myanmar, a 45-year-old Waza Thunga, believed to be a second time flier, was feeling claustrophobic inside the plane, which was still on the runway, and decided to open the emergency exit next to his seat after browsing the plane's safety manual.

 

"As soon as he pulled the safety clutch, the emergency window opened and the emergency bells rang.

 

"The occurrence of such a situation is rare but what can you do to prevent such a thing. How can we control it if a passenger sets off an alarm by mistake," the airline's spokesman Pulok Mukherjee told the newspaper.

 

It is not known whether the airline took any action against the monk, who spoke very little English.

 

-- BERNAMA

http://bernama.com/bernama/v5/news_lite.php?id=457545

[S. Huang 0]

I'm assuming that since this is IC/AI, it would have been an A320/B737, where there were no crew sitting by the emergency exit to prevent anyone from trying to open the door.

 

Whatever happened to the usual checks where passengers sitting at the exit row are asked if he knew what he was supposed to do in the event of an emergency? If the crew did that, he/she would have realised then that the monk didn't understand English/Hindi/Tamil...a language that instructions would have been given over the PA in the event of an emergency.

 

Or perhaps all this happened before the cabin doors were closed, and the crew had not done their safety checks... (but the article did say 'still on the runway').

Edited November 24, 2009 by S. Huang

[Pieter C. 5]

I'm assuming that since this is IC/AI, it would have been an A320/B737, where there were no crew sitting by the emergency exit to prevent anyone from trying to open the door.

 

According my res-system IC727 is operated by 319 aircraft...

[Mohd Idham 0]

Thank god it was not in the air yet....

[Azreen 0]

Classic.... LOL

[Teoh Z Yao 0]

Someone who knows how to open an emergency exit should be that stupid as to open an emergency exit in an airplane for the wrong reason... This is suspicious news...

 

Haha... Glad the plane was still on the ground... :-D

[Sri Ramani K. 0]

so, the overwing slide must have deployed together? sigh, this is a real maintenance headache!

[Robin 0]

I also have this experience before in Vietnam many years ago. When MAS B734 landed Hanoi Noi Bai Airport, one VN worker, played with the emergency exit window and try to close it but fail. At that moment, the aircraft still on runway not yet enter to terminal building. In my memories, there was no alarm rang due to his actions.

[liza 1]

i would say, the plane's safety manual is very well presented and easily understood by pax that the little spoken english monk has proven by opening the emergency exit.

Edited November 29, 2009 by liza