It’s been an eventful few days for India’s aviation sector. Unruly passengers, bomb scares, mid-air snags, forgotten flyers, and meals that are hard to swallow: none of these incidents were pleasant, some were downright disgusting, and they all created a massive buzz on social media, prompting authorities to act.
Let’s take a look at some of these turbulent times in the skies above us.
Going with the flow
An inebriated passenger urinated on the blanket of a female co-passenger in an incident that occurred on December 6, 2022, on Air India Flight 142 from Paris to Delhi.
The matter was reported by the pilot of the aircraft to the Air Traffic Control (ATC) at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) Airport, following which the male passenger was apprehended.
The female passenger, who had initially made a written complaint, refused to file a police case and hence the passenger was allowed to go by the airport security after he cleared immigration and customs formalities.
Earlier, a similar incident took place on November 26 on Air India when a drunk man relieved himself on an elderly woman in business class on a flight from New York to Delhi.
High flyers
Two men were arrested for allegedly consuming alcohol on Delhi-Patna IndiGo (6E-6383) flight. Consumption of alcohol is prohibited on domestic flights in India. Some reports said that the men had a scuffle with other passengers and crew members over this. However, IndiGo refuted it later.
IndiGo, in its statement, confirmed that the incident took place onboard 6E 6383 from Delhi to Patna, adding that the matter is under investigation with the authorities. The airline added that “there was no altercation onboard the aircraft, as what is being reported in some sections of social media”.
An FIR was lodged after the aircraft landed at around 8:50pm on Sunday. Airport sources told News18 that two of the accused, Rohit Kumar and Nitin Kumar, were taken into custody by CISF while a third person, Pintu Kumar, managed to escape from the airport.
Explosive hoax
An Azur Air international flight from Moscow took off for its destination Goa from Jamnagar airport in Gujarat on Tuesday afternoon, nearly 15 hours after it made an emergency landing following a bomb threat which later turned out to be a hoax.
Officials said nothing suspicious was found on the flight after it was thoroughly checked by teams of the National Security Guard (NSG) and the bomb disposal squad of local police.
Left behind
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued a show-cause notice to Go First on Tuesday after a flight from Bangalore airport took off leaving more than 50 passengers forgotten in a bus on the tarmac. The aviation regulator sent a notice to the airline officials, asking why enforcement action should not be taken against them for “dereliction of their regulatory obligations”.
Meanwhile, the airline issued an apology, de-rostered all concerned staff, and initiated an inquiry into the incident. “All concerned staff have been de-rostered by the airline and an inquiry is currently underway,” sources said.
Mid-air muddle
A Paris-bound Air India flight made an emergency landing in Delhi on Wednesday after facing a technical snag mid-air. The plane carrying 210 passengers onboard landed safely at the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport.
The Air India B787-800 aircraft VT-AND operating flight AI143 (Delhi-Paris) was involved in air turnback due to a snag message.
The plane had taken off from the Delhi airport at around 1.30 pm and returned to the airport at about 2.25 pm.
Forced return
A Vistara plane en route to Bhubaneswar returned to the national capital on Monday after experiencing a hydraulic system issue and aviation watchdog DGCA is probing the incident, according to sources.
The sources said the aircraft, which had around 140 passengers onboard, landed safely at Delhi airport.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will probe the incident, an official added.
Hard to digest
A woman after finding a stone in a meal on an Air India flight has brought the airline group under scrutiny once again. The woman shared the photo of the incident on Twitter. In the tweet by the passenger, one can notice the woman holding what looks like a piece of stone along with her meal placed in the background. She claimed that the meal contained a small pebble.
Along with the pictures, she wrote, “You don’t need resources and money to ensure stone-free food, Air India. This is what I received in my food served on flight AI 215 today. Crew member, Ms Jadon was informed. This kind of negligence is unacceptable.”
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