Woman offloaded from GoAir flight to Lucknow for abusing crew

A GoAir passenger who claimed to be a celebrity was denied boarding on a Lucknow-bound flight at the Mumbai airport on Thursday for throwing tantrums and abusing the crew.

A GoAir passenger who claimed to be a celebrity was denied boarding on a Lucknow-bound flight at the Mumbai airport on Thursday for throwing tantrums and abusing the crew.

The woman passenger, being a business class traveller, was assigned a porter to assist her with her cabin baggage (HT File Photo)

The woman passenger, being a business class traveller, was assigned a porter to assist her with her cabin baggage. But airport sources said that she boarded the aerobridge by herself without waiting for the GoAir staff.

A GoAir spokesperson said that the business class passenger was offloaded from flight G8 387 BOM – LKO. According to the airlines,the passenger, while walking through the aerobridge, threw her handbag on another passenger while boarding was in progress. “She then entered the aircraft by pushing the passengers in front of her. Passengers complained about her behavior to the in-flight staff who tried to convince her to calm down.She started abusing the airline staff,” the spokesperson said.

As the flight was being held up, the captain followed flight regulations and decided to deplane the passenger.

The CISF was informed about the incident and the passenger was provided a seat in the next flight.

Flying tempers have become a regular on flights. Two weeks back, an unruly Indigo passenger made a Kozhikode-bound flight make an emergency stopover at Mumbai. The passenger, ostensibly mentally unstable, was off loaded for disturbing the meal service and abusing a co-traveller.

Despite long-pending demands from passengers’ forums and the airlines’ industry to take stringent action against unruly passengers, the civil aviation ministry is yet to introduce such measures.

Recently, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had permitted the domestic airlines’ crew to carry plastic handcuffs on board to contain such passengers. From assaulting the crew to smoking in the lavatory, to breaking armrests, cases of passenger violence on board are not stray incidents.