NEW DELHI: In a glaring breach of aviation protocols, three Italian nationals managed to fly out of India to Munich without mandatory immigration clearance, forcing the Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) to step in hard.
The Centre has issued a formal show-cause notice to Air India, demanding an explanation within seven days over the severe security and protocol failure at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport.
According to ministry sources, the incident unfolded during the operations of Air India’s hub-and-spoke flight AI 1115 from Amritsar to Delhi on the night of September 3–4, 2026. The three Italian passengers landed at IGI Airport at 00:50 hrs on September 4, and subsequently boarded Lufthansa flight LH763 for Munich at 01:45 hrs the same morning—bypassing mandatory departure immigration checks altogether.
Where Did the System Break?
The MoCA notice flags a direct violation of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) governing hub-and-spoke flight transfers. Investigators are zeroing in on critical accountability gaps:
Unauthorized Access: How the foreign nationals slipped into the International-to-International (I2I) transfer zone without clearance.
Staff Accountability: The exact operational roles played by Air India and SATS ground-handling personnel managing the transfer.
Supervisory Vacuum: The whereabouts of designated nodal officers and monitoring teams during the shift.
Manifest Matching Failure: Why reconciliation and matching between incoming domestic passenger manifests and outgoing international lists were skipped or ignored at Delhi.
The ministry has warned that failure to provide a satisfactory explanation within the stipulated seven-day window will invite strict regulatory penal action against the carrier.
Air India’s official response to the incident was awaited at the time of publication, with airline sources indicating an internal inquiry has been ordered to trace the root cause of the lapse.
