Probe on if Air India ferried more passengers in flights from Yemen

NEW DELHI: Aviation regulator DGCA is looking into the issue of Air India having ferried "more" passengers than the "allowed" capacity on some flights while evacuating stranded Indian nationals from the war-hit Yemen recently.

As part of the Operation Raahat earlier this month, the national carrier had operated flights to the Yemen's strife-torn capital Sanaa with 182-seater Airbus A-321s to airlift the Indian citizens back to the country.

The issue relates to the national carrier airlifting some additional passengers on three of its flights on the last day of evacuation than the permitted capacity of the aircraft.

When contacted, a senior Air India official confirmed the developments.

"We are ready for any probe. Air India operated these flights in the national interest and to help the stranded Indians," the official said.

Air India has several times, in the past too, come to the rescue of the Government in such situations.

In 1990, Air India entered the Guinness Book of World Records for the most people evacuated by a civil airliner.

The operation was carried out to evacuate Indian expatriates from Kuwait and Iraq during Persian Gulf War also called First Gulf War (1990-91), the international conflict that was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990.