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Will apologise personally to Kalam: Continental Airlines

Last updated on: July 23, 2009 13:53 IST

Reacting to former President APJ Abdul Kalam's statement that he has not received any communication from Continental Airlines, the United States-based airline on Thursday said that they want to apologise personally to him.

"Since he is not in Delhi, we are waiting for him to return so that we can apologise personally to Dr Kalam," the airline said.

The development came shortly after Dr Kalam said that he is yet to receive an apology from the airlines, for frisking him at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, in April this year.

Earlier, Continental Airlines had issued a public apology for subjecting Kalam to a security frisking at the airport prior to his boarding a US-bound flight of Continental Airlines on April 21.

Terming the incident as a case of misunderstanding, the airlines tendered an apology after the government filed a First Information Report (FIR) against it for breaching Indian aviation rules.

The case was registered after the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) approached the police against the staff of the American airliner for carrying out a pre-embarkation body check of Kalam, which it maintains, is in gross violation of a BCAS circular, which exempts specified VVIPs/VIPs from security checks.

In its statement, Continental Airlines clarified that it didn't intend to insult Kalam, but the frisking was done following American aviation policy to frisk everyone, including VIPs and VVIPs.  

Source: ANI