NEW DELHI – With Air India keeping the incident of a Mumbai businessman urinating on a female co-passenger on board an AI New York-New Delhi flight on November 26, 2022 under wraps for many weeks, aviation experts said that any action now by the airline is too little, too late.
“Now that Delhi police has registered an FIR anything @DGCAIndia @airindiain do will be “Too little too late” a dumb move to keep under wraps after the passenger’s Nov’22 complain to no Less than #Mr N Chandrasekaran,Chairman of #AirIndia also #TataSons at whom the buck stops,” retired pilot, Captain Shakti Lumba said on his Twitter handle.
“Air India covering up the idiot who peed on board, reminds me of the wonderful Ad by Kooka. Protect the offender’s identity & ruin AI reputation!?” aviation safety consultant Mohan Ranganathan said in a tweet.
Aviation regulator DGCA also took a strong note of this and has said that the conduct of Air India was unprofessional and has led to a systemic failure in the case.
The DGCA has noted that the incident of passenger misbehaviour with a female co-passenger was reported to it too late on January 4 while it took place on November 26.
On the other hand, Air India in its report to DGCA about the incident said that the female passenger initially requested that action be taken against the offender upon arrival, however subsequently rescinded her request after the two parties appeared to sort the matter out between them. As per sources, the airline in its report said that the cabin crew reported the incident to the Commander and logged it in the Voyage Report. As there was no further flare up or confrontation, and respecting the perceived wishes of the female passenger, crew elected not to summon law enforcement upon landing, the response said. -IANS