The Directorate-General for Civil Aviation (DGCA) has fined Air India 30 lakh, the aviation regulator said in a statement on Friday. Aviation regulators have also fined Air India’s chief of inflight services 3 lakh and suspended the pilot-in-command’s license for the flight in question for three months.
The decision came nearly a month and a half after a 34-year-old man, later identified as Shankar Mishra, urinated while intoxicated on a 70-year-old female passenger and her seat in the business class of an Air India flight the New York-Delhi Tata Group, owned by Tata Group, on November 26. On January 4, the airline reportedly filed a complaint against the defendant and also formed a committee to investigate the matter.
The airline only imposed a one-month ban on Mishra, but later extended it to four months on January 19 after an internal committee decided to extend the ban. However, on January 20, Mishra’s legal team slammed the grounding, stating that they disagree with the committee’s findings and that they “are already in the process of challenging this decision under the DGCA CAR for Unruly Passengers.”
The 70-year-old passenger reported the incident and the airline’s lack of action in a written complaint to aviation regulators earlier this month. In her complaint, the elderly woman stated that despite her desire for Mishra’s arrest on arrival, the airline took no such action. Instead, the crew tried to mediate her and the perpetrator, and she was forced to sit across from Mishra, the 70-year-old claimed.
Aviation regulators took note of the incident and slammed Air India for the airline’s alleged “unprofessional” behavior in its dealings with the female passenger.
The DGCA had previously issued a statement to the responsible manager of Air India, the chief of in-flight services, all pilots and cabin crew of the cornered flight, in connection with the indictment, “why no enforcement action should be taken against them because they are not complying with their regulatory obligations.” have not complied”.
“The behavior of the airline appears to be unprofessional and has resulted in a system failure,” the DGCA had previously said, giving the airline two weeks to submit its response, based on which further action will be taken.
Meanwhile, Mishra, who served as vice president of US-based financial services giant Wells Fargo India, was arrested in Bengaluru last week. After the incident, he was suspended from the company.
Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran also took note of the incident and said the airline’s response should have been quicker. The airline has also reportedly suspended cabin crew including pilots who were present on the flight on the day of the incident.
