Wedding party flies high to skirt social distancing norms

Aviation regulator ticks off chartered flight’s staff for violation; orders them off the roster

● Initial enquiries revealed that the flight was booked by a travel agent and that it was presumed to be a jolly ride for the guests post-wedding.

● All the guests produced negative RT-PCR test certificates for Covid-19, as per the aviation norms, before boarding the flight.

A caper pulled off by a Madurai couple to have their wedding mid-air as a strict lockdown was in place on the ground on Sunday has landed the crew of the SpiceJet aircraft, used for the marriage with a crowd of friends and relatives around, in a soup.

With the video of the ceremony in the sky going viral, several questions were raised since the guests onboard the Boeing 737 flight were not wearing facemasks and not maintaining social distancing, as mandated by aviation rules.

Soon after the video came out, there was also a debate as to which police officer should crackdown on the errant crowd. Is it the responsibility of the police district under whose jurisdiction the Madurai airport falls, from where the plane had taken off, or that of the district covering the Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple, over which the aircraft is said to have hovered when the nuptial ceremony was held?

Though such discussions raged only on social media, where someone even identified the couple as Rakesh and Dakshina, Indian civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) cracked the whip on the airline, demanding a report and also taking the crew on board off the roaster.

Initial enquiries revealed that the flight was booked by a travel agent and that it was presumed to be a jolly ride for the guests postwedding. All the guests produced negative RT-PCR test certificates for Covid19, as per the aviation norms, before boarding the flight.

According to sources, the passengers were clearly told about the prevailing guidelines on Covid-19 prevention. When the flight was airborne, however, the guests threw all caution to the winds and gathered around the couple, who took to the aisle to tie the thali. The guests were even teasing the couple as it happens in a regular wedding.

Not only the bride but even the guests were also bedecked in glittering jewellery and draped in shimmering silk with jasmine adorning their locks — a scene straight out of any marriage hall during the normal times. And there were also television cameramen and professional photographers jostling amidst the crowd on the aisle to capture the moment for posterity.

However, the leaking of a video clip on social media led to people talking about it and the airline authorities claiming that the marriage party hoodwinked them in following both the aviation and Covid-19 restrictions for flight passengers.

Since the DGCA prime facie felt that the crew had failed to stop the marriage party from violating the norms, it has ordered for taking them off the roster.