New Delhi Air India came under fire from within and outside on Wednesday as details emerged of a revolting incident on New York-Delhi flight on November 26, when a purportedly inebriated man urinated on a co-passenger in business class, and the crew allegedly did little to help the affected person.
The airline said on Wednesday it had filed a police complaint, but it seemed to have been formally made only after the incident emerged in public domain. A Delhi Police
New Delhi Air India came under fire from within and outside on Wednesday as details emerged of a revolting incident on New York-Delhi flight on November 26, when a purportedly inebriated man urinated on a co-passenger in business class, and the crew allegedly did little to help the affected person.
The airline said on Wednesday it had filed a police complaint, but it seemed to have been formally made only after the incident emerged in public domain. A Delhi Police official said they were given basic details of what happened on December 28 -- over a month after the flight -- and a formal complaint was made only on Wednesday.
A Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official, while asking not to be named, too, said the regulator had not been notified, and that a report had been sought from the airline.
“There were failures at multiple levels – failure in invoking the unruly passenger law, in stopping the passenger from urinating on the victim, in looking after basic needs of the victim, in the pilot-in-command not informing the airline ground staff to ask Delhi Police to detain the passenger, and of the airline in not expeditiously heeding to the complaint and filing an FIR instantly. In all, it’s a complete breakdown of the system,” said an airline official, who asked not to be named.
The DGCA official quoted above warned that action could be taken against airline staffers. “We have sought a report from the airline and will take action against those found negligent,” this person said, asking not to be named.
According to the woman’s account, which she shared with Air India chairperson N Chandrasekaran the day after the flight, the crew did not offer her a different seat for over an hour, at one point asked her to return to her soiled seat, and did not heed to assurances that she would be ushered through post-flight formalities quickly.
The errant passenger, Delhi Police said on Wednesday, has been booked under sections of the Indian Penal Code to punish obscenity and those relating to sexual harassment and assault. “We have formed multiple teams to keep a track of the accused passenger and he will be arrested soon,” an officer said, asking not to be named.
On its part, Air India on Wednesday said it has imposed a 30-day flying ban on the male passenger and had set up an internal panel to probe whether there were lapses on the part of their crew in addressing the situation.
The airline did not respond to requests to share the panel’s findings.
“Air India has taken a very serious view of the incident, where a passenger behaved in an unacceptable and undignified manner on the New York-Delhi flight that caused extreme distress to a fellow passenger. A police complaint has already been lodged and Air India is committed to assist the law enforcement agencies as well as regulatory authorities,” said a statement from the airline, which was run by the government till January 2022 before the Tata Sons acquired it.
But experts were not convinced that the airline’s conduct was appropriate. “With several questions that remain to be unanswered, it seems that the airline did not take action against the accused passenger only because he might either be a VIP or a diplomat,” said Mohan Ranganathan, aviation safety expert.
“In an ideal situation, the cabin crew should have alerted the pilot, who in turn should have passed on the message to the airline staff at Delhi airport who would have ensured to take strict action as soon as the flight lands. However, the passenger was able to easily leave the airport,” he added.
The incident, first reported on Wednesday, prompted the National Commission for Women to step into the matter, with its chairperson writing to Delhi Police as well as Chandrasekaran.
In her email to Chandrasekaran, the woman said: “I was getting ready to sleep, and another passenger walked to my seat completely inebriated. He unzipped his pants, relieved himself, and continued to expose me to his private parts,” said the woman in her letter, adding that the crew was “deeply unprofessional” in handling the matter after that.
She was then made to wait near the toilet for 20 minutes and at one point was offered the small crew seats before being asked to return to her seat. “Two hours later, I was given the steward’s seat, where I sat for the remainder of the flight -- approximately 5 hours,” she added.
The woman also said that a fellow passenger told her that seats were vacant in the first class but the woman had not been moved. The airline did not respond to HT’s requests for a comment on whether this was true, why she was not shifted, what action it took against the passenger and why there was an over a month’s delay in relaying the complaint to police.
An airline official, who asked not to be named, said there had been an understanding, including “apologies and monetary compensation”, between the passenger and the man who urinated on her, which was why the crew did not escalate the matter to ground staff and police.
The Delhi Police official quoted above added that both the passengers were in India but not in Delhi.
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