Chute opens on flight before take-off

Kolkata, Jan 10 (UNI) In a bizarre incident aboard the Port Blair-bound Kingfihsher flight, a chute near the emergency exit of passengers accidentally opened at NSCBI airport this morning, delaying the flight for two hours 15 minutes.

The incident occurred, while passengers were boarding the aircraft, an Airbus 320. A passenger, sitting beside the right hand emrgency door, accidentally pushed the operating lever, leading to the opening of the chute.

The passenger claimed that his hand dashed against the lever of the emergency door and opened suddenly.

Under normal conditions, the chute has to be refilled with nitrogen gas and rolled back into its original position. However, since this was not possible at that moment, the flight left at 1215 hrs, after off-loading 51 passengers, in accordance with the safety norms.

The original number of passengers were 161 and the scheduled departure time was 1000 hrs.

UNI XC LL SB RAI2209