It was played by the crew by mistake.

Low-cost airline SpiceJet “inadvertently” played national anthem mid-air on its flight last week, leaving passengers in a tizzy as they were strapped to their seats as the flight was about to make a landing. The incident took place on SpiceJet’s Tirupati-Hyderabad flight (SG-1044) on April 18. A passenger has reportedly filed a complaint with the flight crew after landing.

The airline said that the national anthem was played on the public address system by the pilot accidentally. “We have pre-recorded National Anthem on our aircraft playlist to be used appropriately,” a SpiceJet spokesperson said.

“Our crew inadvertently selected the wrong number on the playlist and National Anthem started playing. It was stopped within a few seconds. We regret any inconvenience caused to our esteemed customers.”

‘No safety violation’

Aviation experts, however, didn’t term the incident a safety violation. “It would have been a safety violation had the passengers been directed to stand up. The pilot mistakenly played it, ” aviation analyst Captain Shakti Lumba said.