Manufacturing Industry

Norwegian Air Shuttle pilot grounded pending reports

Airline Industry Information, March 17, 2005

Norwegian Air Shuttle (Norwegian), a Norway-based airline, has said that it wants all facts before it makes a decision regarding the pilot who refused to pass through security at Oslo's Gardermoen airport earlier this week.

On 15 March an aircraft operated by Norwegian at Gardermoen airport had to be evacuated after the pilot refused to go through security. There were reportedly attempts to get the pilot to go through the security check, but he refused and went to the cockpit of the Boeing 737-300, according to the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. An airport spokesman said that pilots have to follow the same rules as passengers regarding security and as he was not cleared, the aircraft could not be cleared for take-off. Under security rules an aircraft has to be evacuated if a person enters who has not been cleared by security.

According to the newspaper, the pilot's access card has been blocked and the aviation authorities will take a look at the incident, while the pilot will also have to explain his actions to the airline management.

Norwegian has said that it wants to be thorough and will wait for the report from the civil aviation authorities. The immediate reaction to the incident was to ground the pilot, reported the Norwegian online newsletter boarding.no. Any further measures taken will depend on the report from the airport as well as the report from the aviation authorities, the airline has said.

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