A video posted by a social media influencer from Haryana, in which he is seen smoking inside a SpiceJet flight, has sparked outrage on the internet.
The video shows the influencer, who has over 63 lakh followers on Instagram, lighting a cigarette in one of the back rows of a SpiceJet aircraft.
People on Twitter reacted to the incident and called out the influencer for his behaviour. "New rule for Bobby kataria?" tweeted Nitish Bhardwaj, a Twitter user.
Another user, Shweta Singh, tweeted about the state of security in the aircraft.
Soon after the video went viral, many took to Twitter to flag the video to Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
Although the minister had initially said that the incident was being investigated, he later tweeted that this had happened in January and that a police complaint had been lodged.
"He was banned from flying on SpiceJet flights for 15 days thereafter," he added.
Passengers are not permitted to take a lighter on the plane and are not allowed to smoke on the plane as well.
SpiceJet issued a statement saying the smoking incident took place on its Dubai-Delhi flight on January 20 when passengers were boarding the plane and the cabin crew members were busy completing the on-boarding procedure.
Passenger Was Put On No-Fly List
After investigation, the airline had put the passenger on “no flying list” for 15 days in February, it mentioned.
On Twitter, it put out a statement saying, "This is with reference to a video on social media of a passenger smoking onboard a SpiceJet aircraft.The matter had been investigated thoroughly in January 2022 when the video was brought to our notice and a complaint had been filed by the airline with the Udyog Vihar police station in Gurugram."
"The video, the investigation had revealed, was shot on 20th January 2022 while passengers were boarding flight SG 706 scheduled to operate from Dubai to Delhi. The said passenger and his co-passengers shot the video on the 21st row when the cabin crew were occupied with completing the on-boarding procedure. None of the passengers or crew was aware of the act. The matter came to the airline’s notice on 24th Jan'22 through social media posts. The matter was referred to the Internal Committee constituted as per the provisions of Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) on handling of unruly passengers (not consisting of any SpiceJet employee). The said passenger was put on a no flying list by the airline for 15 days in February 2022, " the carrier added.
As per the regulations of aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), an airline has the power to ban an "unruly" passenger for a certain period of time if he or she violates any rules.
Gurugram Police Commissioner Kala Ramachandran told news agency ANI that the airport is not located in Gurugram and therefore does not lie in the jurisdiction of Gurugram Police. Therefore, no action is warranted by Gurugram Police in the matter, she added.
A SpiceJet spokesperson told ANI that the matter had been investigated thoroughly in January 2022 when the video was brought to the airline's notice and a complaint had been filed by them at the Udyog Vihar Police Station in Gurugram.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI.)
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