News
Lankan chefs in mid-air soup; SriLankan flight recalled to Singapore
View(s):A kitchen blowtorch in the checked-in luggage of a team of Sri Lankan chefs returning after a culinary exhibition in Singapore led to the recall of a SriLankan Airline flight soon after it had taken off from the Changi International Airport on Thursday.
The drama unfolded when five Sri Lankan chefs were returning to Colombo after they participated in FoodAsia2016, an International Exhibition of Food and Drinks. They were initially detained for interrogation by the authorities there before the flight departed on the night of April 14.
However, shortly after takeoff, UL flight 309 was instructed to return to Changi Intentional Airport due to “security reasons”. Upon its return, the Singapore Police’s airport division had requested that all check-in luggage be subject to screening once more and also interviewed a few passengers, a statement from SriLankan Airlines said.
Accordingly, all baggage was offloaded and sent for security screening while three passengers were offloaded on the request of the Singaporean authorities for further questioning, the Airline said. The flight had returned to Colombo with the other passengers after a delay of about three hours.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lanka Chefs’ Guild chairman Gerard Mendis said chefs were required to carry their own utensils for the live cookery event. Among their cookware was a portable blowtorch which is used to caramelise sugar and give artistic effect to their creations.
The blowtorch had been checked- in as unaccompanied luggage during their departure from Singapore. The blowtorch worked with a small gas cylinder and this was likely to have triggered the security scare.
However, before the Lankan chefs could board the aircfaft, they had been stopped by the Singapore authorities to question them about their cookware they were carrying. “When the Chef s Guild was informed about the incident, we immediately contacted the exhibition organisers. They got in touch with the Singapore authorities to explain that the cookware had been brought for the exhibition,” Mr. Mendis explained.
The detained Lankans who were questioned for several hours by the Singaporean authorities returned to the country last morning. The SriLankan Airlines statement said the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore was yet to disclose the reasons that led to the recall of flight UL 309.
SriLankan was seekign a comprehensive report, as it believed that ideally all necessary inspections should have been completed by airport authorities before releasing an aircraft for departure, the statement added.