On his way to Coimbatore on Saturday, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran recorded a video from his flight. The video’s intent, however, was to mock Kartanaka BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who made news on January 10 for ‘opening’ an IndiGo airline’s emergency escape, causing the flight to be delayed.
In his video, Dayanidhi Maran stated that he had been given a seat near the emergency exit, but that he would not use it since it presented a threat, and that he would also have to submit a written apology.
To all flyers, in the interest of passenger safety, please don’t fool around with the #EmergencyExit!
Dear “urgent” attention of passengers!
@IndiGo6E @DGCAIndia #ResponsibleMP #don @Tejasvi_Surya pic.twitter.com/PYqjeCfyt8
— Dayanidhi Maran (@Dayanidhi_Maran) January 21, 2023
“I am travelling on an IndiGo flight to Coimbatore. I am sitting near the emergency exit. But I am not going to pull it because it’s not good for the flight, not for the passengers; saves a lot of time and I don’t have to write an apology letter,” the DMK MP said in both Tamil and English.
The event involving Tejasvi Surya sparked a political uproar, with the Congress querying the BJP about the incident, which IndiGo reported a week later. Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia stated that it was an error and that the passenger (Tesjasvi) apologised.
Tejasvi’s co-passenger on the IndiGo flight, Tamil Nadu BJP chairman K Annamalai, provided a comprehensive account of what happened, saying Tejasvi did not open the emergency exit and the gate was not opened but was out of place, which Tejasvi saw and alerted the crew about.
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After the engineers were notified, they arrived and repaired the gate, but all passengers were required to exit to verify that all checks were completed. According to Annamalai, Tejasvi submitted an incident report and, as a responsible MP, apologised to the passengers for the delay.