The Directorate General of Civil Aviation on Monday issued a show-cause notice to Air India over the airline’s ‘lackadaisical and delayed’ response to two cases of passenger misbehaviour on its Paris-New Delhi flight last month in which a drunk passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory and a male passenger allegedly urinated on a female passenger’s blanket.
The aviation regulator said two incidents, “One passenger caught smoking in the lavatory, was drunk and not listening to the crew,” and “another passenger allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of fellow female passenger when she went to lavatory,” was reported on the Air India flight 142 on December 6.
DGCA held Air India responsible for not reporting the incident until the authority sought the incident report from the airline on January 5. The DGCA stated, “prima facie it emerges that provisions related to handling of an unruly passengers as per DGCA CAR Section -3, Series-M, Part-VI have not been complied with. It has been noted that the response of the airline has been lackadaisical and delayed.”
DGCA has issued a show cause notice to the Accountable Manager of Air India on why enforcement action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations. “However, to follow the principles of natural justice, they have been given two weeks time to submit their reply to DGCA and based on that further action will be taken,” the statement read.
It reiterated that DGCA has issued Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) Section -3, Series-M, Part-VI on “Handling of Unruly Passenger” and Cabin Safety Circular 02 of 2010 on “Unruly Passengers/Passenger Rage/Passenger Misconduct incidents reporting procedure”.
According to the rules, airlines are responsible for informing the DGCA within 12 hours of the landing of the aircraft in case of any incident of unruly passengers, passenger rage, or passenger misconduct reported in flights. Airlines must refer the incident to the internal committee comprising three members: a retired district and session judge as chairman, a representative from a different scheduled airline, and a representative from a passengers association or consumer association or retired officer of Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum.
The internal committee will then decide the duration of the ban for flying the unruly passenger within 30 days and have the authority to extend the restriction from zero days to a life time ban. “During the pendency of the decision by the Internal Committee, the concerned airline may ban such an unruly passenger from flying for a period not exceeding 30 days,” it noted.
Instances of inappropriate conduct on flights shocked the country after a male passenger, Shankar Mishra, allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger in her 70s in the business class of the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year. Delhi Police registered an FIR against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India and arrested him from Bengaluru on Saturday.
Ten days after the incident was reported, another incident of unruly behaviour of a passenger was reported in which a drunk male passenger allegedly urinated on a female passenger’s blanket on the Air India Paris-New Delhi flight 142 on December 6.
On January 5, the DGCA pulled up the Tata Group-owned Air India with notices to the officials and crew of the New York-Delhi flight, saying prima facie it emerges that provisions related to handling unruly passengers were not complied with. It said Air India’s conduct appeared to be “unprofessional” and asked why action should not be taken against them for “dereliction” of duty while handling the November 26 ‘urination’ incident.
Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran on January 8 admitted that Air India’s response to the incident on one of its international flights last year should have been “much swifter”. “We fell short of addressing this situation the way we should have,” he said in a statement.
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