Cigarette stub causes fire panic in Air India flight as washroom bin catches fire

Air India (Commons)

Passengers of Air India flight AI 984, arriving from Dubai, were subjected to a fire panic situation, 15 minutes prior to their landing in Mumbai after smoke was detected in one of the washrooms.

Passengers were asked to secure their seatbelts and follow safety instructions. The flight managed to land at the scheduled time of 4:15 a.m., and all the passengers were reported to be safe and unharmed.

On investigating, the officials learnt that one of the passengers had lit a cigarette in the washroom and discarded the stub into the bin which caused its contents to catch a fire and burn.

An Air India spokesperson commented, said in a report by Hindustan Times, “It is the ground security that gives clearance. Air India has raised the matter with the concerned authorities to investigate the incident and are looking into the matter.”

When a person passes through the security check-in, they are thoroughly checked for any inflammable objects and if anything is found it is retrieved or confiscated. So, finding a lit cigarette in an aircraft is supposedly a loose-end on ground security staff's end.

A passenger stated that as soon as the smoke was detected, the crew members rushed towards it and found out that the dustbin in the washroom had caught fire. Another passenger, who was flying in from Canada and switched flights at Dubai airport said, “Though the crew members had doused the fire, we were all tensed after learning about the fire. The authorities need to investigate how the passenger managed to get lighter on to the flight.” Further investigation was carried out to find who boarded the flight with a lighter and violated aircraft safety regulations.

After landing in Mumbai, the passengers of AI 984 were asked to remain on the ground for an hour to find out the culprit who was later handed over to the Sahar police.