Air India on Sunday set up a three-member committee to probe a scuffle between a co-pilot and a cabin crew member on its Sharjah-Lucknow flight on Saturday morning.
This is in addition to the inquiry initiated by the Delhi police on the complaint of an airhostess on the flight.
An Air India spokesman said the committee would question the pilots and crew, but insisted that at no point did any of the two pilots — Commander Ranbeer Arora and Capt. Aditya Chopra — come out of the cockpit. “There was never an instance of no pilot being present in the cockpit,” he said, rejecting reports suggesting that the cockpit had been left unattended.
“The Commander was in his seat throughout the flight and never left it. This can also be corroborated by the recordings of the Cockpit Voice Recorder [black box].” Describing the incident as a clear case of “indiscipline,” he said the Air India management would take stern action against the guilty based on the findings of the inquiry.
The co-pilot and the crew member are alleged to have sustained minor injuries. The matter was reported to the airline authorities when the flight reached Lucknow, and both were de-rostered, pending inquiry. The IC 884 flight from Sharjah to Delhi via Lucknow was carrying 106 passengers.
