National regulators have come down heavily on Air India for not taking firmer action against inebriated passengers who urinated in the cabin on separate flights from France and the United States.
India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) deemed Air India’s response to the incidents, which took place on international flights to New Delhi in November and December, “lackadaisical” and “unprofessional”.
In two separate notices issued this month, the regulator said India's flagship carrier had failed to follow proper procedures for handling unruly passengers, which include reporting them to authorities and considering banning them from flying.
On 6 December, an Indian man on an Air India jet from Paris reportedly urinated on the seat and blanket of a fellow passenger while she was in the washroom, while another traveller on the same plane locked himself in the toilet for a smoke.
The cabin crew did not restrain the two drunken men, who were later allowed to walk away when their flight reached Delhi, according to a DGCA notice issued on Monday.
'Completely soaked in urine'
It came four days after the DGCA reprimanded Air India over an earlier incident in which a man travelling in business class allegedly urinated on an elderly female passenger onboard an Air India flight from New York on 26 November.
The shocking events came to light only after the woman wrote a letter of complaint to the head of the Tata Group, the vast conglomerate that owns Air India, in early January.
"My clothes, shoes and bag were completely soaked in urine," the 72-year-old woman wrote.
Crew members covered the soiled seat in sheets and invited her to return to it, she reported, offering her only a cramped crew seat when she refused.
Amid public outrage, Indian police on 7 January arrested Shankar Mishra, the 34-year-old alleged perpetrator, on charges of exposing himself in public.
Mishra was also put on Air India’s no fly-list for 30 days, and has reportedly been sacked from his job at financial firm Wells Fargo.
Stain on industry
In an advisory to all airlines issued in the wake of the scandal, the DGCA said that flight staff's failure to take appropriate action against unruly passengers had "tarnished the image of air travel".
It ordered pilots and cabin crews to enforce the rules against misbehaving travellers, or face regulatory action.
DGCA issues an advisory to Head of Operations of all Scheduled Airlines with regard to handling unruly passengers on board and respective responsibilities as per the regulations. pic.twitter.com/b84yD3ya4u
— ANI (@ANI) January 6, 2023
“If you have irresponsible crew you will ruin the reputation of the airline, which has already happened in this case,” aviation safety consultant Mohan Ranganathan told a debate on travel decorum.
“Air India acknowledges that it could have handled these matters better, both in the air and on the ground, and is committed to taking action,” airline chief executive Campbell Wilson said.
India's new flyers
Flight attendants say they are also the victims of bad behaviour by passengers.
Crew members say the problem is rampant, with one stewardess recalling being addressed as “servant” by an Indian flier travelling home from Istanbul in December.
“We get the same number of feels, nudges and touches in economy as well as in the business section...There is no safe zone out there for women staff,” one Indian cabin manager told RFI.
Communications consultant Dilip Cherian blamed the boorish behaviour on a misplaced sense of entitlement among some of India’s new air travellers.
“We have accelerated the pace at which a large part of the country now has access to airlines but this does not apply to business-class fliers, so that is a class of entitlement which needs castigation and examination,” he told NDTV.
The Civil Aviation Sector witnesses huge growth, fulfilling the common man's dream of air travel
— PIB India (@PIB_India) August 11, 2022
✈️1.04 crore passengers flown in UDAN flights
✈️65 airports + 8 heliports and 2 water aerodromes operationalized under UDAN
🔗https://t.co/wTubgJ2KRz pic.twitter.com/bzHFFd8IIw
India’s domestic airlines, which between them operate over 700 planes, are projected to grow 2.5 times over in the next seven years, while airports are boosting capacity to handle additional 125 million passengers from the next financial year.
“I hope to see people in flip-flops in hawai jahaz [aeroplanes],” Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in 2017, opening the floodgates of air travel for 350 million middle-class Indians eager to splurge.
