A viral video of an argument between Indigo’s air hostess and a passenger has brought attention to the ill-treatment faced by airlines’ crew members by unruly passengers. The internet seemed divided in this whole debate, some supporting the air hostess for her anger, and others backing their argument saying, “Customer is the king”.
As Livemint reported that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has launched an investigation, it must be noted that the Indian aviation sector goes through thousands of incidents of misbehaviour with airline crew every year.
Coming forward in support of IndiGo’s air hostess, Jet Airways CEO Sanjiv Kapoor on Twitter wrote, “Crews are human too. It must have taken a lot to get her to breaking point. Over the years I have seen crew slapped and abused on board flights, called “servant” and worse. Hope she is fine despite the pressure she must be under”.
Sharing a past incident of similar unruly behaviour of a passenger, Kapoor said, some years ago a 19-year-old crew was slapped by a passenger because his meal choice was not on board.
“I met her the same day, and she was inconsolable and said this is not what she signed up for. She quit flying the same day,” Kapoor added.
He said at that time India did not have an unruly passenger policy. And that case was one of the incidents that led to the introduction of such a policy.
The Indian aviation law under the updated Aircraft Rules, 1937 has a provision for marking a passenger as unruly if the person fails to respect the rules of conduct at an airport or on board an aircraft or to follow the instructions of the airport staff or crew members. It also includes the use of any threatening or abusive language towards a member of the crew or other passengers, behaving in a physically threatening, abusive, and disorderly manner towards a member of the crew or other passengers, and smoking in an aircraft, among others.
Similarly, passengers can also complain about an unruly cabin or flight crew member to the aviation regulator DGCA or on Air Sewa.
In the latest video, a heated argument is visible between the IndiGo’s air hostess and the passenger whereby both are complaining of being yelled at.
However, an eyewitness told Livemint, that the argument was on food availability and was initiated after the passenger started shouting at the senior crew member following another argument with a junior crew member.
“She (the junior crew member) was serving and he was like jaldi karo! I could just see her face, no matter what she was trying to say, he was just cutting her, she was not getting the opportunity to finish her sentence because he just kept accusing her of things, it was one of those moments I could tell so then I just saw her getting teary-eyed and leave,” Jaipur-based pastry chef and chocolate maker Tejasvi Chandela said.
“Then this lady came out to take the conversation forward, she is like Sir you cannot talk to us like that, he was the one to first raise his voice and pointed fingers at her. Obviously, any person would get riled up about it and then he also went ahead and called her a servant, which was just so demeaning, and then obviously, it was in such bad taste,” she added.
The incident occurred on IndiGo 6E 12 Istanbul-Delhi. The passenger can be heard calling a cabin crew member his “servant” amidst a high-pitched argument.
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