Crew detention fallout: Air India issues new instructions for crew flying to Saudi Arabia

NEW DELHI: Air India has asked its crew members operating flights to Saudi Arabia to carry their names on the hotel letter pad along with the telephone numbers of the hotel, immigration and airport. The move comes after the Jeddah police had detained some AI crew members in last week as they were not carrying their original passport with them. Saudi Arabia keeps the original passports of Indian airlines' crew on arrival and they only have photocopies of the same during their stay in the country. "All crew are hereby informed that along with the crew permit and Air India identity cards in Jeddah, you are now required to carry the details of crew names written in Arabic on the letterhead of the Hotel Trident. The letterhead will also have the phone numbers of the hotel, immigration department and airport. All crew laying over at Jeddah are required to comply with the above requirements for their own safety," says an "Information bulletin" issued by AI. An AI spokesman confirmed the instruction and said the same was issued by the airline's safety wing. Air India and Jet Airways operate flights to Saudi Arabia, where the original passport of crew members are kept by immigration on arrival and the personnel then have only photocopies of their travel documents during their stay in Saudi. Last week, AI crew members were detained for some hours in Jeddah as they could not show their original travel papers during a check. "We operated AI 931 on July 26, 2017. After landing in Jeddah, ... (three crew members) went for dinner... Our taxi was stopped by Saudi police to check our permits. On showing them our xerox from immigration and our valid AI ID, we were put in police vans and were told not to use cell phones. Luckily we made a call to hotel and explained the situation and gave our location," said a message by one of the three AI crew members who were detained in Jeddah last week. "Technically our xerox permits (passport copies) are invalid and going out is a big risk (without them)," the message says. They were released later after AI's intervention. A senior pilot of Jet Airways had on June 1 raised the issue of Saudi keeping passports of airline crew on arrival at immigration with the aviation and external affairs ministry. "A passport is a citizen's personal proof of identity and nationality when in foreign land, without which a persons status instantaneously declines to that of a refugee. (Saudi) cannot be allowed to treat its visitors with such disdain. We enter their airspace and country only at their request and permission," the letter titled "passport retention - Saudi Arabia" says and sent to aviation and foreign ministries says. "We urge your office to take cognisance of this issue which is faced by the airline fraternity and find an amicable solution the earliest by coordinating with the appropriate department of Saudi Arabia.. The Passports Act, 1967, of India requires that a passport is the property of the government of India and should be in the custody either of the holder or a person authorised by the holder," the letter seeking urgent redressal says.