DNA
 
Mumbai, Dec 15 (mb): Go Air is in the news yet again. This time, it involves 24 passengers who were denied boarding into its Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight early on Friday, apparently for security reasons.

The airline, in its defence, said this was done to protect its employees as the passengers concerned were showing signs of turning violent when the flight was delayed.

Flight G8-107 was scheduled to leave Mumbai at 11:05pm on Thursday but finally took off in the wee hours of Friday at 1:08am thanks to airport congestion. According to a Go Air source, the flight from Ahmedabad was to land at 10:30pm but was ultimately cleared only at 12:30am.

The airline provided refreshments to the passengers. “But a group turned abusive and violent, which scared our officials at the airport,” he said, adding, “So, as part of our employee protection and safety policy, they were offloaded.”

Asked if the passengers would get a ticket refund, a Go Air official said, “Normally we do but in this case, we will not as the offloading was done for security reasons.”

Last week, a Go Air executive was slapped by an irate passenger following an inordinate delay.