Air India is mulling preparing a no-fly list for unruly passengers following Wednesday’s incident in which a Shiv Sena MP allegedly assaulted a 60-year-old airline staffer with slippers over a disagreement.
“Air India is examining creation of no-fly list of unruly passenger on the lines of other carriers,” a senior airline official said.
Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad refused to deboard the Air India flight he travelled by from Pune to Delhi, leading to him beating up and abusing a duty manager who urged him to.
Gaikwad, who had an open business-class ticket that allows him to travel on any date, insisted on taking the airline’s early morning flight AI-852 from Pune to Delhi, an all-economy class plane.
This led to an argument with the airline employees in Pune and an assault on the manager by the MP when the aircraft landed in Delhi.
“The MP turned violent, broke the duty manager’s spectacles, tore his shirt and hit him with slippers several times,” airline sources said.
There have been several reported incidents of unruly behavior by the fliers onboard various airlines in the recent times.
Last month, AirAsia India filed a police complaint in Bengaluru against two drunk fliers for creating “nuisance” onboard one of its flights.
In January, IndiGo was forced to tie down a passenger to his seat for being violent onboard one of its flight from Dubai for New Delhi.
According to the officials, between July 2016 and February 2017, 53 incidents of unruly behavior by the passengers have been reported by the domestic airlines.
According to the global aviation body, International Air Transport Association (IATA), “unruly passengers” are one of the top three safety issues that concern cabin crew.
As per the IATA, in 2015, there were 10,854 reported cases of unruly behavior by the passengers across airlines worldwide, which translate into one incident for every 1,205 flights.
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