The airline, after realising its mistake, arranged for another flight for the impacted passengers four hours later. According to reports, 53 out of 55 passengers were shifted to the second flight, whereas the airline paid the refunds as asked by the remaining two passengers.

Taking cognizance of the incident, the aviation watchdog has sent a notice and sought a response from the airline, according to the news agency PTI. It quoted a senior DGCA official as saying, "'appropriate action' will be taken" regarding the issue.

Over the past couple of months, domestic airlines are under the aviation regulator's radar owing to misconduct and negligence in operations. This is the third time in the past two weeks that the aviation regulator has sent notice to an Indian airline over negligence.

The DGCA on Monday sent the second show-cause notice to Tata-owned Air India for its "lackadaisical" and "delayed" response to two unruly passenger incidents that occurred on its Paris-Delhi flight in December.

The notice said, "Two incidents of passenger misbehavior occurring on Air India flight AI-142 on November 6, 2022, from Paris to New Delhi came to the notice of DGCA. One passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory, was drunk, and not listening to the crew. Another passenger allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of a fellow female passenger when she went to the lavatory."

Last week, the DGCA sent a notice to Air India, while slamming the airline for its "unprofessional" conduct in dealing with a female passenger, who was allegedly urinated upon by a co-passenger on a New York-Delhi flight on November 26, 2022. "The conduct of the airline appears to be unprofessional, and has led to systemic failure," the aviation regulator said, while giving the airline two weeks time to submit its reply based on which further action will be taken.

Last year, the DGCA sought a report from SpiceJet for negligence in flight operations. In light of repeated tech snags, the regulator on July 27 asked the airline to operate at a 50% capacity for eight weeks and later extended the curbs till October 29 last year. The aviation watchdog, however, lifted the curbs on SpiceJet on October 31.

DGCA notice to Go First

Go First flight leaves 55 passengers behind; DGCA seeks report