No passenger was travelling on fake passports: AI

Mangalore Today News Network

Mangalore, Aug 22: Contradicting police claims that two passengers on board the ill-fated AI Express Boeing, which crashed into Kenjar Valley on May 22, were travelling on fake passports, Air India insists that it had carefully examined all passports at the Dubai-based Indian Embassy before distributing compensation and no passenger had a fake passport.

Chellam Prasad, the station manager of Mangalore International Airport, informed reporters that compensations were given only after verifying the passports and authenticating them at the Dubai-based Indian Embassy and said that the Embassy would have informed AI if there were any discrepancies. 

She also said that the Angels of Air India, based in Dubai, had investigated all the passports and established that Abdul Samad had a genuine passport and not a fake one as police alleged. She said that the travel agent had entered the wrong passport number on his ticket. 

Mohammed Ashfaq was one of the nine people who had reserved a seat on the ill-fated flight, but did not board the plane for various personal reasons. She said that Ashfaq’s name is in the pre-flight manifest; however, the post-flight manifest reveals that he was not on the plane. She confirmed that no passenger on the May 22 flight carried a fake passport. 

Inspector Venkatesh Prasanna informed the Court of Inquiry on Thursday that two victims of the Mangalore plane crash, Mohammed Ashfaq and Abdul Samad, had fake passports. He said that Abdul Samad was travelling under passport number F-0606599, which belongs to Shanavaz Vellarathangal of Kozhikod, Kerala, Mohammed Ashfaq was using passport number F-3646893, which belongs to Gonsalves Marian Ignatious of Vikroli, West Mumbai.