The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on January 27 imposed a Rs 10 lakh fine on Wadia-Group-owned airline GoFirst (formerly known as GoAir) for failure to ensure adequate arrangements for ground handling for the flight.

“The airline failed to ensure adequate arrangement for ground handling, preparation of load and trim sheet, flight dispatch and passenger/cargo handling,” the aviation regulator said in a notice.

On January 9, 55 passengers who were bound for New Delhi from Bengaluru on a 0630 IST GoFirst flight G8 116 were left behind in a bus. The stranded passengers were later accommodated on another flight a few hours later. The DGCA on January 10 sent a show cause notice to the carrier, highlighting “multiple mistakes” that could be easily avoided.

Following the incident, GoFirst announced that the airline will offer one free ticket to all affected passengers for travel to any domestic sector in India in the next 12 months.

Further, the airline pointed out that all concerned staff (would be) off the roster till the inquiry is going on.

GoFirst submitted a response to DGCA’s show cause notice on January 25.

The airline also issued an apology saying that the shocking error occurred due to an “inadvertent oversight”.

Two IAF aircraft crash near Madhya Pradesh’s Morena

Two Indian Air Force fighter aircraft crashed in Pahadgarh area of Morena in Madhya Pradesh on Saturday. Morena additional superintendent of police Rai Singh Narwariya said, “An air force team is reaching the spot to confirm about the plane and number of people present in it. Police found a hand near the plane.”

News agency ANI reported citing defence sources that a Sukhoi-30 and Mirage 2000 aircraft were involved in the crash.

The two aircraft had taken off from the Gwalior air base in Madhya Pradesh where an exercise was going on.