Days after mid-air peeing incidents, the Tata group-owned Air India has again courted controversy, in which an Air India pilot on a Dubai-Delhi flight number AI-915 allegedly allowed a woman friend to enter the cockpit, thus flouting the air safety norms.
A formal complaint regarding the incident was filed by an airline crew member, following which the aviation regulator initiated a probe into the incident.
As per the complaint, marked to Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson and the aviation regulator, as seen by a national news agency, the pilot allegedly took the woman inside the cockpit, and wanted crew members to make her feel "comfortable".
In a statement issued on the incident, Air India has said that it has taken "serious note" of the reported incident. An investigation has been launched and the matter has been reported to the regulator, said the airline, adding that it has "zero tolerance" for such behaviour and will take appropriate actions against the erring staff.
The complainant has said these violations fall under POSH (prevention of sexual harassment complaint), DGCA rules, the violation of air safety norms and the Air India operations manual.
In January this year, the DGCA penalised the Tata group-owned Air India with ₹40 lakh fine for two separate mid-air peeing incidents. The regulator penalised Air India with ₹30 lakh fine and also imposed a fine of ₹3 lakh on the director of its in-flight services for an incident in which a male passenger in an inebriated condition urinated on a woman. The DGCA also suspended the license of the pilot-in-command of the flight concerned for three months.
The 34-year-old man, identified as Shankar Mishra, urinated on a 70-year-old female co-passenger and her seat in an inebriated condition, in the business class of a New York-Delhi Air India flight on November 26, 2022. Despite causing major harassment to the woman, and thus committing a crime, no immediate action was allegedly taken against the accused.
The airline only imposed a ban of one month on Mishra, and later extended it to four months following the suggestion of its internal committee. Mishra’s legal team, however, slammed the flight ban, stating they disagree with the committee’s findings and that they “are already in the process of appealing this decision in accordance with the DGCA CAR for Unruly Passengers.”
In another incident, the DGCA imposed a financial penalty of ₹10 lakh on Air India for not reporting a similar incident to it, and delaying referring the matter to its Internal Committee, which it said is a violation of applicable DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements. The incident pertained to Air India's December 6 flight (AI-142) from Paris to New Delhi, when a male passenger urinated on the vacant seat of a woman and also on her blanket. Another passenger, who was on the same flight, was also caught smoking in the lavatory.
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