Four days after Air India incident of a man urinating over a co-passenger on a New York-Delhi flight of November 26 came to light, the airline’s CEO Campbell Wilson said that four cabin crew and one pilot have been issued show cause notices and de-rostered pending investigations.
Mr. Wilson in a statement said that the “the airline “regrets and is pained” by these experiences. “Air India is deeply concerned about the in-flight instances where customers have suffered due to the condemnable acts of their co-passengers on our aircraft, “ he added.
The accused, Shankar Mishra, was arrested from Bengaluru by a special team of Delhi Police. With the assistance of sleuths from Central Crime Branch of Bengaluru City Police, he was tracked down to a service apartment in Sanjay Nagar, North Bengaluru, and was arrested from there.
Facing backlash for the handling of the incident, Mr. Wilson said the airline could have handled the issue better and promised a robust reporting system of unruly behaviour and a system of reporting such incidents.
The airline said that internal investigations into whether there were lapses by other staff are ongoing on aspects including the service of alcohol on flight, incident handling, complaint registration onboard and grievance handling
It is taking the following actions: commencing a comprehensive education program to strengthen crews’ awareness of and compliance with policies on the handling of incidents and unruly passengers, and reviewing policy on service of alcohol.
Also, it is reviewing the meeting frequency of the DGCA-prescribed ‘Internal Committee’, tasked with assessing incidents, so that cases are assessed and decisions reached in a more timely manner.
“To improve the robustness of its legacy incident reporting processes, which are presently paper-based and manual, Air India signed a Letter of Intent in December 2022 to acquire a license for the market-leading provider of incident management software, Coruson,” he said.
“In addition to this state-of-the-art software, the airline is also in the process of deploying iPads to Pilots and Senior Cabin Crew. When used together, crew will be able to enter voyage and incident reports electronically, which will then be rapidly and automatically routed to relevant parties including, as required, the Regulator.” Air India, he said, also continues to provide support to the affected passengers and ensure their well-being.
Air India convened four meetings between senior Airline staff, the victim and her family on December 20, 21, 26 and 30 to discuss actions being taken and the progress thereof.
“When the victim’s family requested that Air India lodge a police report during the meeting on December 26, it did so on December 28, 2022,” he said.
“Air India and its staff will continue to provide full cooperation to the affected passenger, and regulators and law enforcement authorities as they investigate these cases. We are committed to providing a safe environment for customers and crew, as well as operating in full compliance with all laws and regulations.”
(With inputs from PTI)
