SpiceJet Offloads Unruly Fliers On Delhi-Hyderabad Flight For Misbehaving With Female Cabin Crew

On Monday, a male passenger was offloaded from a SpiceJet flight at the Delhi airport after he?made inappropriate physical contact with a female cabin staff member.?

After an altercation on board a wet-leased Corendon aircraft en route from Delhi to Hyderabad, the airline claimed it removed the unruly passenger and his friend from the flight.

ANI

It was reported that the male passenger was loud and inappropriately groped a female cabin crew member while boarding.

After the crew member filed a written complaint, the passenger was removed from the aircraft and sent to the IGIA (Indira Gandhi International Airport) police station.

Flight SG-8133 was supposed to take off from Delhi and land in Hyderabad.

A senior official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said it is looking into the matter and will take appropriate action.

SpiceJet

"During boarding at Delhi, one passenger behaved unruly and inappropriately, harassing and causing disturbance to cabin crew. The crew informed the PIC (Pilot in Command) and security staff of the same. The said passenger and a co-passenger, who were traveling together, were offloaded and handed over to the security team," SpiceJet said in a statement.

A video clip purportedly of a heated argument between a cabin crew and the passenger onboard the plane was also shared on social media.

Recently, there have been various incidents of unruly behavior by passengers onboard flights. Under DGCA norms, unruly behavior can even attract a lifetime ban on flying.

On January 7, two foreign nationals were offloaded from a Mumbai-bound Go First flight from Goa after allegedly misbehaving with a female cabin crew member.

At least three incidents of unruly passenger behavior onboard two Air India international flights last year came to light in recent weeks. There was also an incident onboard a Thai Smile Airways plane from Bangkok to Kolkata last month.

Twitter

On January 20, DGCA imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Tata Group-owned Air India and suspended the license of the pilot-in-command of the New York-Delhi flight in which a person allegedly urinated on a female co-passenger.

In the incident on November 26, 2022, the watchdog slapped a fine of Rs 3 lakh on Air India's director of in-flight services for failing to discharge her duties.

The enforcement actions for violation of applicable norms came nearly two months after the incident, which came to the notice of the DGCA only on January 4.

Shankar Mishra, who is currently in jail, has been barred from flying for four months by Air India.

On January 9, DGCA issued a show cause notice to Air India after finding the airline's response as "lackadaisical and delayed" regarding two incidents of passenger misbehavior onboard a flight from Paris to New Delhi last month.

A drunk customer was once found smoking in the lavatory and not paying attention to the flight attendants. The passenger later used a female passenger's empty seat and blanket to pee on.

These events occurred on the December 6, 2022, flight between Paris and New Delhi but were never reported to the authorities.

The Bureau of Civil Aviation Security called the police on December 29 about the fight on a Thai Smile Airways flight from Bangkok to Kolkata on December 26.

A video clip of the incident before the take-off of the A320 plane from Bangkok on December 26 was shared on social media. In the clip, a male passenger was slapped multiple times by a few male co-passengers.

Twitter/Saurabh Sinha

"About the scuffle between passengers on board a @ThaiSmileAirway flight, a police complaint has been filed against those involved. Such behavior is unacceptable," Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in a tweet on December 29.

Under DGCA rules, the airline concerned is responsible for informing the regulator within 12 hours of the landing of the aircraft in case of any unruly passengers/ passenger rage/passenger misconduct reported in their flight, the statement said.

Representative Image

Besides, the airline concerned has to set up a three-member internal committee.

?It will have a retired District and Sessions Judge as Chairman, a representative from a different scheduled airline as a member, and a representative from a passengers' association or consumer association or retired officer of the Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum as the third member.

The committee can decide how long the rude passenger can't fly within 30 days, and the ban could last for life.

During the pendency of the decision by the committee, the airline concerned may ban the unruly passengers from flying for up to 30 days, as per the rules.

After the committee decides, the airline should maintain a database of unruly passengers and inform the DGCA, which is responsible for maintaining the 'no-fly list.'

(With PTI inputs)

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