Holding that Air India's conduct appeared to be "unprofessional", aviation regulator DGCA on recently issued notices to the officials and crew of the New York-Delhi flight, asking why action should not be taken against them for "dereliction" of duty while handling the November 26 'urination' incident.
In a shocking incident, an inebriated man allegedly urinated on his female co-passenger, a senior citizen in her seventies, in the business class of an Air India New York-Delhi flight on November 26 last year.
According to the regulator, prima facie, it emerges that provisions related to handling of unruly passengers were not complied with.
As per media reports,the Air India crew of the New York-Delhi flight had written to their seniors about the urination incident hours after their flight landed in Delhi.
What did the mail say?
As per the email sent by the crew member, during the course of the flight, a lady guest travelling in business class claimed that a male passenger came upto her seat and urinated on her while she was sleeping.
The staff claimed that the crew members took action promptly and helped the lady change her clothes. The elderly co-passenger was also informedby the on-flight staffs that if she desired, Air India commercial staff and security staff would meet her on arrival to help and offer assistance and guidance in filing the police complaint.
“Crew also cleaned the area, her belongings and sanitized her shoes. The belonging of guest seated on adjacent seats were also cleaned. She claimed she was well connected and wanted to file a police complaint. We categorically informed her that Air India takes such incidents very seriously, appropriate process and procedures are in place to ensure handling such incidents in an efficient way,” the email read, as per media reports.
The crew stated that the accused man, who was “a young adult in his early thirties”, was confronted by them and was made aware of the accusations levelled against him by the woman flyer.
According to an Air India staff, the accused, Shankar Mishra, appeared shaken and denied he would ever do anything like this. He appeared decent and was polite and humble and claimed to be working for a multinational company. He kept on saying that although he does not remember anything, he was willing to offer an unconditional apology and compensation in any form to the lady,” the Air India crew said.
The email claimed that the woman had, in the meantime, started to demand compensation from Air India.
When the woman was informed that the man wanted to offer an apology and wanted to offer compensation, she willingly agreed to meet him, the crew alleged.
“During the meeting he apologised and agreed to give her monetary compensation and also get her clothes and shoes dry cleaned,” the email said.
The crew alleged that another passenger, who was earlier denied an upgrade to First Class, “instigated the lady to go to press/media and demand compensation from Air India.”
“As a result, the lady who was all praises for the crew, all of a sudden started accusing the crew of not cleaning her shoes and bag,” the crew member claimed.
In the mail, the Air India staff said that the crew did an “exceptional job of efficiently handling the situation and going beyond their call of duty.” They further warned of the possibility of the lady “escalating the matter by using social media/press is not ruled out”.
Delhi Police has arrested from Bengaluru the man who allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger on an Air India flight.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (Airport) Ravi Kumar Singh said, "Accused Shankar Mishra in IGIA case has been arrested from Bengaluru by a Delhi Police team. He has been brought to Delhi and further investigation into the case is in progress."
The accused was staying at his sister's home in Sanjay Nagar, Bengaluru. The city police assisted the Delhi Police team in arresting him, a Bengaluru police official said.
According to the FIR, shortly after lunch was served and the lights were switched off onboard AI 102 on November 26, 2022, the inebriated male passenger seated in business class seat 8A walked to the elderly woman's seat, unzipped his pants and urinated on her.
The case has been filed under sections 294 (obscene act in public place), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) and 510 (misconduct in public by a drunken person) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as under Aircraft Rules.Delhi Police has summoned Air India staff in connection with an incident in which a man allegedly urinated on a co-passenger onboard a flight from New York to Delhi, sources said.
(With PTI Inputs)
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