Unruly airline passenger incidents increased in past 3 months; here's a look at 8 such cases this year
5 min read 01 Apr 2023, 02:51 PM ISTIndian airlines have been lately facing challenge to cope with unruly passengers behaviour. Incidents of such incidents have spiked in the last three months.
PremiumIndian airlines have been lately facing challenge to cope with unruly passengers behaviour. Incidents of such incidents have spiked in the last three months.
According to India's aviation rules, if a passenger is found guilty of unruly behaviour, besides action under criminal law, that person will be banned from flying for a particular time period, depending on the level of the offence.
The recent molestation incident case where a Swedish National molested an IndiGo flight cabin crew is fifth registered case between 2017-2023, TOI has reported. As per the daily, in 2022, the police had arrested about 6 people in unruly passenger incidents. Speaking of this year, in just three months, eight incidents have been reported.
Recently, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V K Singh had said that a total of 10 passengers have been been put on the 'No Fly List' this year till 15 March. Giving past 2 years record, Singh said that, a total of 66 and 63 passengers were placed in the 'No Fly List' in 2021 and 2022 in accordance with Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) on unruly passengers. To deal with unruly behaviour onboard flights, aviation regulator DGCA has issued a CAR titled 'Handling of unruly/ disruptive passengers'. As per the CAR, airlines are required to follow a prescribed procedure for holding passengers accountable before they are placed in the 'No Fly List' by the airline.
Lets take a look at the cases of unruly passenger behaviour in 2023:
-The recent incident was of a drunk Swedish national who allegedly molested an IndiGo flight crew member onboard a Bangkok-Mumbai flight. The accused, identified as Klas Erik Harald Jonasm was traveling on flight 6E-1052. The incident happened when the flight attendant informed him that there was no sea food available on flight and instead served him chicken. Later when she asked him for his ATM card to make the payment, the passenger held her hand. Pulling her hand away, the crew asked him to enter the pin. The passenger later got up and molested her in front of the crew and other passengers. As per TOI report, the passenger was granted bail as his lawyers claimed that accused suffers from health issues and his body shivers.
-On 26 March, a drunk male passenger vomitted in the aisle and defecated around the toilet on an IndiGo Guwahati-Delhi flight. The incident was shared by Twitter user Bhaskar Dev Konwar. In a tweet, he wrote, “Intoxicated passenger vomited on the aisle and defecated all around the toilet. Leading lady Shewta cleaned up all the mess and all the girls managed the situation exceptionally well. Salute girl power."
-Prior to that, on March 23, Mumbai's Sahar Police had booked two IndiGo flyers travelling from Dubai to Mumbai for allegedly being drunk and misbehaving with the crew, police said earlier in the month. The arrested passengers were identified as Dattatreya Bapardekar and John George D'Souza. It was alleged that both these passengers started drinking after the flight took off from Dubai and when the cabin crew found this, they informed them about the ban on drinking alcohol inside the flight. However, both the accused got infuriated and stood up from their seat and started walking inside the flight drunk.
- On 13 March, a passenger on an Air India flight from London to Mumbai was handed over to security personnel for allegedly smoking in the lavatory and behaving in an unruly manner. “He behaved in an unruly and aggressive manner, despite repeated warnings," Air India said.
-On 5 March, a drunk student on an American Airlines flight allegedly urinated on his seat. The 21-year-old Indian student was studying at a US University onboarded the AA292 flight from New York. The student involuntarily urinated while he was asleep due to the effect of alcohol and the leak fell on a fellow passenger.
-On 9 March, a 24-year-old woman passenger, identified as Priyanka Chakraborty and a resident of West Bengal, was arrested for smoking in the lavatory of a Bengaluru-bound flight. The cabin crew discovered the cigarette in the dustbin of the lavatory and poured water on it to douse it.
-On 4 March, On an Air India flight, the accused passenger named Anil Meena was caught smoking inside the washroom of a Delhi-bound Air India flight. The cabin crew sensed the smoke coming from the washroom which also triggered the fire alarm. The pilot of the aircraft informed Delhi airport authorities about the incident. He was then detained by Delhi Police when the flight landed at the airport. He told the police that he was a chain smoker.
-In January, the Mumbai airport police had booked flyer after the passenger attempted to open the emergency door of IndiGo’s Nagpur - Mumbai flight once it landed. The reported incident took place on 24 January when the Indigo flight, 6E-5274, landed at the Mumbai airport around 12:35 pm and the indicator showed that somebody was attempting to open the emergency door. The crew rushed towards the door and noticed that the cover of the handle of the emergency door was removed by a passenger.
Pee incident
The rise in unruly passenger behaviour came to light after last year, Shankar Mishra allegedly urinated on the 70-year-old woman co-passenger in an intoxicated condition in business class of the Air India flight on 26 November 2022. Mishra was arrested from Bengaluru on January 6 and sent to judicial custody by a court in Delhi on 7 January, however, on 31 January he was granted bail. Air India banned him from flying for four months in connection with the case. Besides, the airline de-rostered four cabin crew and a pilot for ignoring the woman's complaint. On 20 March, a 72-year-old woman, who was urinated upon approached the Supreme Court for a direction to DGCA and all airlines to frame mandatory Standard of Procedure and zero tolerance rules to deal with unruly passengers and onboard sufferers. Hema Rajaraman sought direction for Directorate General Civil Aviation to include in the CAR an explicit zero-tolerance policy concerning "unruly/disruptive behaviour", which would mandate reporting to it and to law enforcement, failing which action would be taken against the airlines in all cases.
In the second incident, another drunk man urinated on the blanket of a female co-passenger. The man had given a written apology following which no penal action was taken against him. The incident had occurred on 6 December 2022 on the Delhi bound Air-India flight from Paris. During this time, the pilot of the aircraft reported the matter to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, following which the male passenger was apprehended. He was later allowed to leave after the two passengers had a "mutual compromise" and the accused tendered a “written apology." Air India was penalised twice in January this year by the aviation safety regulator DGCA for not reporting two separate incidents of unruly passenger behaviour on its international flights.
