- Wednesday, March 05, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
With the incident of a passenger urinating on an elderly woman co-passenger on an Air India flight between New York and Delhi last November leading to a widespread outrage, the carrier’s chief executive Campbell Wilson has told the employees that Air India crew should report any improper behaviour on aircraft to authorities at the earliest even if the matter appears to have been settled.
“If an incident on our aircraft involves improper behaviour of such magnitude, we must report it to authorities at the earliest opportunity, even if we genuinely believe that the matter has been settled between the parties involved,” Wilson said in an internal email, NDTV reported.
“We must also be clear on the standard of behaviour that is expected on our aircraft and take firm, decisive and timely action against those who do not comply,” he said, adding, “The repulsion felt by the affected passenger is totally understandable, and we share her distress.”
The airline has come under massive criticism, including from India’s civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), over its handling of the incident.
It was alleged that the accused businessman was allowed to leave without facing any consequence, leaving the victim shocked.
Air India did not raise a complaint with the police till last week only after the woman’s letter to its group chairman N Chandrasekaran came to the fore.
The woman said the crew had not only offered her a fresh seat, but even brought the drunk man to her seat and made her face him as he apologised and begged to be pardoned.
The airline, which banned the man from flying for 30 days following an outcry, said as there was “no further flare-up or confrontation”, and “respecting the perceived wishes of the female passenger, the crew elected not to summon law enforcement upon landing”.
The DGCA strongly approved of the airline’s conduct saying it was “unprofessional” and led to “systemic failure”. It has also asked for an explanation from officials of the Tata Group-owned airline, the flight’s pilot and the crew.
Ten days after that incident, another episode of a drunk male passenger allegedly urinating on a female co-passenger’s blanket took place on a Paris-Delhi flight, and it was reported that no action was taken after the man apologised in written, Press Trust of India reported.
