Mumbai: There was commotion at the Mumbai airport late on Thursday night when 40-50 passengers were not allowed entry into the Santa Cruz terminal for security reasons. Most of these passengers had arrived by international flights and had to catch their domestic flight from Santa Cruz.

Around 12 am, the passengers found themselves stranded outside Terminal 1A (Santa Cruz) of Mumbai airport. "Most of the passengers had come by international flights and came to Santa Cruz to board another flight that was to leave at 5.20 am," said an airport source.

These passengers came by Air India and Kingfisher flights and were there to take their early morning flight. "Normally, such passengers who have to catch early morning flights are checked-in by the airlines even if their flight leaves at 5 am," said the source. The CISF guards said they were ready to let the passengers in the terminal provided the airline staff screened their luggage.

However, the passengers said the airline staff was not there in the terminal and hence, they were not allowed," he said. It was only around 4.30 am that they were allowed to proceed for check-in.

When contacted, an Air India official said that this has been happening for the last few days as the CISF officials were not letting in the passengers after 12 am. "It seems that due to security reasons, passengers are allowed in only 45 minutes before their flight time," he said.

Sanjay Prakash, senior commandant, CISF did not respond to our calls or SMSes.
Source : DNA