A 40-year-old woman passenger allegedly slapped an Air India staffer on Tuesday morning at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here after arguing over arriving late for her flight. The airline staffer allegedly slapped the passenger in retaliation. The police said the matter ended in a compromise, the police said.
Carrier rules
According to the police, the passenger, a resident of Haryana’s Panchkula, had booked an Air India flight to Ahmedabad which was scheduled to take off at 5 a.m. on Tuesday.
However, the passenger reached the airport around 4.20 a.m. as opposed to 75 minutes prior to the scheduled time of departure according to the rules.
When the passenger approached the boarding counter, they refused to give her the boarding pass citing the rules of the carrier but she allegedly started arguing with the staff. The woman was then asked to approach the duty manager with whom she continued to argue. The argument turned into a scuffle and the passenger slapped the duty manager, who retaliated by slapping the passenger.
Medical examination
Deputy Commissioner of Police (IGI Airport) Sanjay Bhatia said that the police received a call at 4.55 a.m. regarding a quarrel at Terminal-3 of the airport.
“When the police reached the spot, it was found that the passenger had reported for check-in at 4:18 a.m. and was denied entry to the flight. There was an argument between the passenger and Air India staffer and the former slapped the latter. The staffer then slapped her back,” he said.
Mr. Bhatia said that both women were then taken to Safdarjung Hospital for medical examination where the nature of injury was found to be non-serious.
“Both of them were then taken back to the police station where they apologised to each other and stated in writing that they want no police action in the matter. Hence, no FIR was registered,” he said.
Later in the day, Air India issued a statement wherein they said, “One passenger going to Ahmedabad arrived late at airport and missed her flight. There was an argument with the counter staff and the same has now been resolved”.
