[video_popup width="805" height="454" video_link="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z2VrVivIxI
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Holi, the festival of colors in India, has turned out rather colorless for the country's second biggest low cost carrier, SpiceJet.
On March 17, when India celebrated the Holi, SpiceJet wanted to play its part by deploying extra crew members on domestic flights in order to perform a short dance sequence.
The plan was to include an additional three crew members in a total of five domestic flights, so the routine could be carried out mid-flight. Inevitably, many passengers filmed the dancing and then posted their clips online.
Video of the dance sequence performed for a trendy Bollywood song during a Goa to Bangalore flight:
Everything was fine until the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) spotted a pilot in one of the video clips.
Citing flight safety, the DGCA sent a "show-cause notice" to the airline on March 20, asking why the airline's license should not be suspended.
A SpiceJet official confirmed to Tnooz that the airline had been contacted by the DGCA and is working on a reply to DGCA through its legal team.
The official also told Tnooz that the person appearing in the YouTube video was not the pilot, rather he is part of the crew. The pilot was just taking pictures and not dancing (see video above), while the cockpit was manned by the co-pilot, claims the official.
However, the pilot joining the crew was not part of the original plan, says the official.
Nevertheless, the incident has resulted in SpiceJet removing the pilots from the roster and the DGCA has suspended both during the investigation.
The incident comes almost a year after a pilot for the country's national carrier, Air India, landed himself in trouble after a rant against the airline also went viral on YouTube.
NB: No prizes for counting the number mobiles that were filming the dance in an another video here.