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In the latest incident, an Indian Airlines passenger was arrested for defecating and urinating on the floor of the plane. (Getty Images)
Incidents of passengers hanging out outside the restrooms, smoking on board, and even sexual harassment of crew members have all seen a sharp rise in the past few months.
In another such incident during the flight, a male passenger on the Air India flight Mumbai-Delhi on June 24 defecated, urinated and spat on the floor of the plane, forcing the cabin crew to isolate him from others.
The passenger, Ram Singh, was handed over to security personnel after the plane landed at Delhi airport. A police complaint was registered and the incident was reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
Such incidents have risen sharply in the past few months, with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issuing an advisory to airlines, repeating existing provisions in place to deal with unruly passengers.
recent disturbances
Here’s a look at mid-flight accidents caused by unruly passengers so far this year:
- June 24 | A passenger on Air India flight AI866 which was operating from Mumbai to Delhi allegedly defecated, urinated and spat in the ninth row of the plane on June 24. The accused, Ram Singh, was handed over to security personnel after the plane landed at Delhi airport. A case has been registered under IPC sections 294 (obscene acts) and 510 (public misconduct by a drunk person).
- April 8 | A 30-year-old passenger from Kanpur who was traveling from Delhi to Bengaluru on Indigo Flight was arrested for attempting to open the emergency exit mid-air. Indigo Airlines said in a statement that a passenger traveling on Flight 6E 308 from Delhi to Bengaluru tried to open the emergency exit cover while intoxicated. The accused, Prateek, of Patrakarpuram in Kanpur, was booked on a complaint by a crew member under sections 290 and 336 of the IPC and 11(A) of the Aircraft Act.
- March 30 | A 63-year-old Swedish national has been arrested for allegedly harassing a crew member on Flight Indigo. Claes-Erik-Harald Jonas Westberg was allegedly drunk when the accident occurred on Indigo Flight 6E-1052 Bangkok-Mumbai. He was accused of inappropriately touching a crew member while he was buying food on the plane, and he also assaulted a passenger who interfered. He was booked by the Mumbai Police under Section 354 of the Indian Penal Code (Harassment) and other provisions of the Aircraft Act.
- March 26 | A drunk passenger vomited on the aisle and defecated around the toilet on Air Indigo’s flight from Guwahati to Delhi. The horrific incident sparked outrage on social media after a picture of a cabin crew member cleaning up a mess went viral. Bhaskar Dev Kunwar, a passenger on the plane, recounted the incident in a Facebook post.
- March 23 | Two passengers on board a flight from Dubai to Mumbai Indigo have been arrested for allegedly throwing abuse at the crew and other passengers while intoxicated. They were placed under arrest after the flight landed in Mumbai and were released on bail. The two accused, from Nalasobara in Palghar and Kolhapur, were reportedly returning after working for a year in the Gulf and had begun partying by consuming liquor which they had brought from a duty-free shop. When the co-pilots objected to the altercation, the duo allegedly abused them as well as crew members who took their bottles away. They were booked under Sections 336 of the Indian Penal Code (for endangering the life and safety of others) and 21, 22 and 25 of the Aircraft Rules.
- March 10 | A passenger on an Air India flight from London to Mumbai has been handed over to security personnel for allegedly smoking in the toilet and unruly behaviour. “A passenger on our flight AI130, operating from London to Mumbai on March 10, was found smoking in the toilet. Later, he acted in an unruly and aggressive manner, despite repeated warnings.
- March 9 | A 24-year-old woman was arrested on arrival in Bengaluru after she was caught smoking in the toilet of an IndiGo flight from Kolkata. According to the police complaint, the flight crew suspected Priyanka C, who was traveling on seat number 17F, of smoking in the middle of the flight and asked her to open the toilet door. Upon inspection, the crew found a cigarette in the trash and extinguished it with water.
- March 5 | A passenger on a New York-New Delhi American Airlines flight allegedly urinated on a drunk colleague. The accused is a student at an American university. He was drunk and urinated while asleep. “It somehow leaked and fell on a fellow traveler who complained to the crew,” a report by the authority quoted an airport source as saying. The report added that the male victim was not keen to report the matter to the police after the student apologized. However, the airline took the matter seriously and reported this to Air Traffic Control (ATC) at IGI Airport. The accused passenger has been handed over to the Delhi Police.
- March 4 | A case has been registered against a passenger on board an Air India flight from Kolkata to Delhi for allegedly smoking inside the aircraft lavatory. An official said, “He was smoking inside the toilet when the alarm started going off, alerting the flight crew… The incident was reported to Delhi Center and the passenger was handed over to Delhi Police as soon as the flight landed at IGI Airport.”
- January | The incident on November 26 last year was exposed this year when the accused, Shankar Mishra, was arrested on January 6 for allegedly urinating on a drunken 72-year-old woman in Air India business class. Trip on November 26 last year. It has been booked under Sections 354, 509 and 510 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 23 of the Indian Aircraft Code. As outrage over the incident mounted, US-based financial services firm Wells Fargo terminated Mishra’s employment and Air India banned him from flying for four months. On January 31, the Delhi Court granted bail to Mishra with a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh and a surety of the same amount.
What do the rules say
DGCA regulations classify unruly passenger behavior into three levels and these people can face flight bans of varying duration.
Unruly behavior such as physical gestures, verbal harassment and unbridled drunkenness is classified as level 1 while physically abusive behavior such as pushing, kicking or sexual harassment is classified as level 2.
Life-threatening behavior such as damage to aircraft operating systems, physical violence such as suffocation and fatal assault will be considered at Level 3.
Depending on the level of unruly behaviour, an internal committee set up by the airline in question can determine how long a rowdy passenger can be banned from flying.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha on April 3, Minister of State for Civil Aviation V.K. Singh said as many as 63 people had been placed on the ‘no-fly list’ by airlines in 2022.
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