A drunk passenger aboard an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Bengaluru on Friday, 7 April, was arrested for allegedly trying to open the emergency exit on the plane.
A statement issued by the airline said,
“A passenger travelling on flight 6E 308 from Delhi to Bengaluru tried opening the flap of the emergency exit in an inebriated state.”
“On noticing this violation, the crew on board alerted the captain and the passenger was appropriately cautioned. There was no compromise on the safe operation of the said flight,” the statement added.
The 40-year-old passenger was handed over to the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) after the plane landed in Bengaluru.
A First Information Report (FIR) has also been lodged in the matter with further investigation underway.
Not The First Time: On 10 December last year, aboard an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Tiruchirappalli, a passenger had accidentally unlocked the emergency exit, delaying the plane by over an hour.
While the airline did not name the passenger, people aboard the flight had alleged that it was Bharatiya Janata Party MP Tejasvi Surya.
Not The First Drunk Incident Either:
A student on board a flight from Delhi to New York allegedly urinated on his co-passenger mid-air on 4 March, while in an intoxicated condition.
The American Airlines stated that they had cancelled the accused's "travelling, his return, and future travel on our flight."
The deputy commissioner of police (IGI Airport) had also stated at the time that legal action was being taken against the accused.
A similar incident had taken place in November 2022 in a flight from New York to Delhi when 34-year-old Shankar Mishra allegedly unzipped his trousers and urinated on another passenger who was in her 70s.
The accused was arrested by the Delhi Police and granted bail "conditional upon a personal bond of Rs 1 lakh."
He was also fired by his employer, Wells Fargo – an American financial services company.
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had in January imposed a Rs 10 lakh fine on Air India for not reporting incidents of 'unruly behaviour' of two passengers on its Paris-Delhi flight on 6 December.
The DGCA was referring to the incident where a drunk passenger had "allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and the blanket of a fellow woman passenger while she was in the lavatory."
In yet another incident, a drunk railway employee allegedly urinated on a sleeping woman passenger on board the Akal Takht Express between Amritsar and Kolkata on 12 March.
The accused was detained and taken into custody by the railway police.
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