Air India's London-bound flight returns to Delhi after passenger hits cabin crew

The male passenger reportedly pulled the hair of the female cabin crew 15 minutes after the AI-111 Delhi-London flight took off.

A Delhi-London Air India flight on Monday returned to Delhi after an unruly passenger had a brawl with crew members mid-air. The airline has lodged a complaint with the Delhi Airport Police on the incident and handed over the unruly passenger to the police, the news agency reported. The Air India flight took off from Delhi at 6.35am and the brawl took place after some time forcing the plane to make a turn and come back to Delhi again. Read | ‘Captain went to…’: IAS officer slams Go First flight delay

Air India's London-bound flight returns to Delhi after passenger hits cabin crew (HT_PRINT)

The Air India flight took an about-turn after an unruly passenger hit the cabin crew. (Flightradar24.com)

The flight returned to Delhi to deboard the unruly passenger who started creating troubles soon after the flight took off. The unruly passenger was deboarded at the airport and the flight took off for London.

“Air India flight AI 111 scheduled to operate Delhi-London Heathrow on April 10, 2023 returned to Delhi shortly after departure due to the serious unruly behaviour of a passenger on board. Not heeding to verbal and written warnings, the passenger continued with unruly behaviour including causing physical harm to two of the cabin crew members. The pilot in command decided to return to Delhi and the passenger was handed over to the security personnel upon landing," Air India said in a statement.

“An FIR has also been lodged with the police. Safety, security and dignity of all on board is important to us at Air India. We are providing all possible support to the affected crew members. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers and have rescheduled the flight to depart for London this afternoon,” the statement read.

Last month, a passenger of a London to Mumbai Air India flight was caught smoking in the lavatory of the flight and was booked for unruly behaviour. Early this year, Air India was fined ₹30 lakh for failing to comply with rules in the November urination case. A passenger, Shankar Mishra, allegedly urinated on an elderly woman in a drunken state on a New York-New Delhi flight on November 26.

(With inputs from Bureau)