Delhi Police: Deboarded passenger arrested after misbehaving with SpiceJet crew

“Absar Alam, the accused passenger on the Delhi-Hyderabad SpiceJet flight who misbehaved with a female crew member onboard the flight has been arrested after a complaint from SpiceJet security officer. A case has been filed as well,” news agency ANI has reported citing Delhi police.  

Earlier on 23 January, a passenger on a SpiceJet aircraft was deboarded allegedly for “unruly and inappropriate” behaviour onboard the Delhi-Hyderabad flight at Delhi airport. The co-passenger was also offloaded along with the man who was accused of inappropriate behaviour onboard the flight.

In the video shared by ANI showed an elderly man in a verbal fight with the airline crew.

While issuing a statement, the carrier wrote, “On January 23, 2023, SpiceJet wet-leased Corendon aircraft was scheduled to operate SG-8133 (Delhi – Hyderabad). During boarding at Delhi, one passenger behaved in an unruly and inappropriate manner, harassing and causing disturbance to the cabin crew. The crew informed the PIC and security staff of the same. The said passenger and a co-passenger, who were travelling together, were offloaded and handed over to the security team.”

The crew alleged that the passenger had touched one of the crew members inappropriately, however, the passenger said that it was an accident due to the confined space in the aircraft, as reported by ANI.

Meanwhile, in recent times, there have been various incidents of unruly behaviour by passengers onboard flights. Under the DGCA norms, unruly behaviour can even attract life time ban on flying.

Earlier on 7 January, two foreign nationals were offloaded from a Mumbai-bound Go First flight from Goa after they allegedly misbehaved with a woman cabin crew member. Not just this, at least three incidents of unruly passenger behaviour onboard two Air India international flights last year came to light in recent weeks. Among others, there was also an incident onboard a Thai Smile Airways plane from Bangkok to Kolkata last month.

On January 20, DGCA imposed a penalty of ₹30 lakh on Air India and had also suspended the license of the pilot-in-command of the New York-Delhi flight in which a person allegedly urinated on a female co-passenger. In the incident, which happened on November 26, 2022, the watchdog has also slapped a fine of ₹3 lakh on Air India’s Director of in-flight services for failing to discharge her duties.

Air India has imposed a four-month flying ban on the accused Shankar Mishra, who is in jail now. 

In another incident,  DGCA had issued a show cause notice to Air India after finding the airline’s response as “lackadaisical and delayed” regarding two incidents of passenger misbehaviour onboard a flight from Paris to New Delhi last month.

In one incident, a drunk passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory and was not listening to the crew. In the second incident, another passenger allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of a fellow female passenger when she went to the lavatory. These incidents had happened onboard the Paris-New Delhi flight on December 6, 2022 that were not reported to the regulator.

On December 29, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) filed a police complaint regarding the scuffle between passengers onboard a Thai Smile Airways plane from Bangkok to Kolkata on December 26.

A video clip of the incident that happened before the take-off of the A320 plane from Bangkok on December 26 was shared on social media. In the clip, a male passenger was being slapped multiple times by a few male co-passengers.

“With regard to the scuffle between passengers on board a @ThaiSmileAirway flight, a police complaint has been filed against those involved. Such behaviour is unacceptable,” Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said in a tweet on December 29.

Under DGCA rules, the airline concerned is responsible for informing the regulator within 12 hours of landing of the aircraft in case of any incident of unruly passengers/ passenger rage/passenger misconduct reported in their flight, the statement said.

Besides, the airline concerned has to set up a three-member internal committee. It will have a retired District and Sessions Judge as Chairman, a representative from a different scheduled airline as a member and a representative from a passengers’ association or consumer association or retired officer of Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum as the third member.

The committee can decide the duration of flying ban on the unruly passenger within 30 days and there could be a life time ban.

During the pendency of the decision by the committee, the airline concerned may ban such unruly passenger from flying for a period of up to 30 days, as per the rules.

After the committee takes the decision, the airline should maintain a database of all such unruly passengers and inform the same to DGCA, which is the custodian for maintaining the ‘no-fly list’.

(With inputs from agencies)