Now DGCA Grounds IndiGo Pilot Who Threatened 75-Year-Old Passenger Asking For A Wheelchair

Private carrier IndiGo has been in the news of late for grounding standup comedian Kunal Kamra after he heckled TV anchor Arnab Goswami.

Now, in an embarrassing development, India's aviation watchdog the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has grounded a pilot of the airline for allegedly misbehaving with an elderly passenger.

BCCL

The incident happened on a Chennai-Bengaluru flight last month. A twitter user had accused Jayakrishna, the captain of the flight of aggressive behavior to her mother who is 75 years old and is wheelchair-bound.

According to her the captain "threatened and prevented me and my 75-year old diabetic mom from disembarking the flight and threatened to arrest us because we asked for wheelchair assistance". "I tried calling the assistance bell and when the crew didn¡¯t respond, I walked up for help. She (the cabin crew) claimed we don¡¯t have access to a wheelchair when it was clearly printed on the ticket. When I pointed this out to her, the captain came barging out and yells at me for pressing the assistance button and annoying him and his crew. ¡®How dare you call her (the cabin crew),¡¯ he asks.

AFP

Taken aback, I tell him not to yell at me and then the threats start. The wheelchair guys arrive and he points at mom and says you¡¯re not going anywhere.¡± ¡°He prevents the wheelchair people from taking my mom out of the aircraft threatening us that he will ensure we are detained and spend a night in jail.

Disbelievingly I ask him whether he is serious. ¡®Shut up. Who do you think I am? I'll get my CEO to make sure you spend a night in jail. We will teach you some manners,¡¯ he says.¡±

¡°My mom in the meanwhile is worried as he is so aggressive that he looks like he will get physically abusive with me and says please don¡¯t be rude like that, to which he says he is the captain, his job is to fly the plane here and not be polite to mere passengers. ¡®You have paid piddly Rs 2000, you don¡¯t own the aircraft,¡¯ he adds. ¡®I will make sure you are barred from the skies¡¯," she had said in a series of tweets.

BCCL

After her tweet, Aviation minister, Hardeep Singh, promised intervention and asked DGCA to probe into the issue. IndiGo had in the meantime said that the pilot in question has been off-rostered pending an investigation.

Incidentally, while suspending Kamra from its flight, IndiGo had said that it "wish to advise our passengers to refrain from indulging in personal slander whilst onboard, as this can potentially compromise the safety of fellow passengers".

Following the controversy, the pilot who flew Arnab and Kamar had questioned IndiGo's move and said that he did not find the comedian's actions worth reporting as a level 1 offence.