Govt, Air India consider to put check mechanism for unruly passengers

The government has started taking measures to keep a close eye via an institutional mechanism to check “undesirable flight behaviour”. On the other hand, Air India is considering to prepare a no-fly list for unruly passengers.

This follows an incident at the IGI airport here in which a Shiv Sena MP allegedly assaulted a 60-year-old airline staffer. Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju said such regrettable incidents should never happen again.

“We are also working on creating institutional mechanisms to check undesirable flight behaviour or unruly passengers,” Raju said in a series of tweets. Following the incident, the national carrier is also looking to have a no-fly list.

“Air India is examining creation of no-fly list of unruly passengers on the lines of other carriers,” a senior airline official said. Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad, who was flying on an Air India flight from Pune to Delhi, hit the airline’s duty manager Sukumar with his slipper several times when the latter urged him to deplane after the lawmaker refused to do so once the plane landed at the Delhi airport.

“The MP turned violent, broke the duty manager’s spectacles, tore his shirt and hit him with slippers several times,” an airline source said.

The Shiv Sena MP, carrying a business class ticket, insisted on taking the airline’s early morning flight AI-852 from Pune to Delhi, which is an all-economy class.

This led to an argument with the airline employees in Pune and an assault on the manager by the MP when the aircraft landed in Delhi. In recent times, there have been reported incidents of unruly behaviour by the fliers onboard various airlines.

Last month, AirAsia India filed a police complaint in Bengaluru against two drunk fliers for creating “nuisance” onboard one of its flights. In January, IndiGo was forced to tie down a passenger to his seat for being violent onboard one of its flights from Dubai to New Delhi.

According to the officials, between July 2016 and February 2017, 53 incidents of unruly behaviour by passengers have been reported by domestic airlines. Global aviation body International Air Transport Association (IATA) had earlier said “unruly passengers” are one of the top three safety issues that concern cabin crew.

Also Read | Who is Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad who punched 60-yr-old Air India Duty Manager

 In 2015, there were 10,854 reported cases of unruly behaviour by passengers across airlines worldwide, which translate into one incident for every 1,205 flights, according to IATA.