- Wednesday, March 05, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
In a major fallout from the mid-air urinating controversy in an Air India flight between New York and Delhi in November last year, Air India on Saturday (7) grounded and issued show-cause notices to four cabin crew members and one of the pilots of the flight, NDTV reported.
In the controversial flight, a Mumbai professional named Shankar Mishra allegedly urinated on an elderly woman while drunk. He was arrested on Friday (6) night from Bengaluru in the southern Indian state of Karnataka and flown to New Delhi.
“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 on board, and grievance handling,” an official statement from Campbell Wilson, CEO and managing director of Air India, said.
The airline, which has also received a flak from the country’s civil aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation over its handling of the matter, said it “regrets and is pained about” these experiences, and added that it acknowledges that it could have dealt with the situation better, “both in the air and on the ground”.
The complainant, who is in her 70s, had expressed shock and displeasure over Air India’s handling of the incident and even wrote to Air India group chairman N Chandarsekaran.
The issue caused a major uproar after coming to the fore with netizens saying the initial action by the airline to ban the accused for 30 days was inadequate.
To deal with such incidents in the future, the airline said it has started a “comprehensive education program” to strengthen crews’ awareness of and compliance with policies on the handling of incidents and unruly passengers, and to better equip crew “to empathetically assist” those affected, the report added.
It will also review the airline’s policy on service of alcohol in flight, the statement said.
Air India said it “continues to provide support” to the affected passengers and ensure their well-being.
“Initiated the DGCA-prescribed “Internal Committee”, tasked with assessing incidents and which comprises a retired judge, a representative from a passengers’ association, and a representative from another Indian commercial airline, on 10 December. The file was passed to the Committee on 20 December and a 30-day interim travel ban imposed on the same date,” the airline said.
It also called four meetings between senior airline staff, the victim, and her family on December 20, 21, 26, and 30, 2022, to discuss actions being taken into the matter and the progress thereof, it said.
“When the victim’s family requested that Air India lodge a police report during the meeting on 26 December, it did so on 28 December 2022,” Air India added.
Earlier on Saturday, both the flight’s pilots reached Delhi’s IGI airport police station for questioning.
On November 26, Mishra allegedly unzipped his pants and urinated on the woman in the business class. He later begged her not to report him to the police, saying it would affect his family.
Air India filed a police complaint only this week saying as there was “no further flare-up or confrontation”, and “respecting the perceived wishes of the female passenger”, the crew decided against summoning the law enforcement upon landing.
