The airline took action after the woman wrote to Group Chairman Tata N Chandrasekaran.
New Delhi:
In November, a drunk man urinated on a female companion in business class on an Air India flight and left without taking any action. A few weeks after the incident, Air India filed a lawsuit and asked to put the unruly pilot on a no-fly list.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has asked the airline to report on the incident which was revealed after the woman wrote a letter to Air India’s group chairman, N Chandrasekaran.
“We will take action against those who are negligent,” the regulator said.
On November 26, an intoxicated passenger allegedly unlocked and urinated on a fellow passenger in his 70s in business class on an Air India flight from New York to Delhi. The lights were dimmed after the meal.
After urinating, the man is said to have not moved until another passenger asked him to leave.
The woman complained to the crew and told them her clothes, shoes and bag were soaked with urine. The crew is said to have given her a set of clothes and slippers and told her to go back to her seat.
After the flight landed in Delhi, the passenger is said to have left without facing any action for his egregious behaviour.
Disappointed with the airline’s handling of the case, the woman wrote to Mr Chandrasekaran the next day.
Air India has now filed a police complaint against the man. “Air India has formed an internal committee and recommended placing the male passenger on the ‘no-fly list’. The matter is within the jurisdiction of the government committee and is pending a decision,” the source said.
The woman is said to have said in the letter that she did not want to sit in the dirty chair, so she was assigned a crew chair. After an hour, she was asked by the crew to return to her seat, which was covered with sheets but still reeked of urine. She said the crew sprayed disinfectant on the seats. When she adamantly refused to sit in the same seat, she was assigned another cabin crew seat, where she spent the rest of the flight.
The woman alleges that she was not given another seat in business class even though there was still space available.
This is the latest incident of unruly behavior on a flight.
On December 26, a group of passengers beat on board a passenger on Thai Smile’s Bangkok to Kolkata flight after he refused to straighten his seat before take-off. On December 16, one videotapes An argument arose on an IndiGo flight in which a flight attendant was heard saying to a passenger, “I’m not your servant.”
