- Monday, March 03, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
India’s aviation sector witnessed yet another disgraceful episode on Thursday (30) when an elderly Swedish national was arrested in Mumbai in the western state of Maharashtra for allegedly molesting a cabin crew member under the influence of alcohol while flying from Bangkok, Thailand, in an IndiGo flight, Asian News International reported.
The accused, identified as Klas Erik Harald Jonas Westberg, was handed over to the city police by the airline staff members after the flight landed.
According to a report in The Times of India, the accused passenger allegedly started misbehaving when meals were being served and continued with the nuisance till the flight’s landing. The report also said that the 24-year-old cabin crew member, who was allegedly molested, alerted the captain and read out a red warning card to the passenger.
“The problem began when I informed Westberg (seated on 28-E), who was drunk, that there was no seafood onboard. I served him chicken meals and asked for his ATM card to make a payment through the POS machine. On the pretext of swiping the card, the passenger held my hand. I pulled it back and asked him to enter the card PIN. This time he crossed the limit … getting up, he molested me in front of other passengers. When I shouted and screamed that he was misbehaving, he returned to his seat,” the Times report quoted the crew member as saying.
Westberg’s lawyer, however, said that the former has medical conditions and his body shivers. He said that his client, aged 63, cannot hold anything without help.
“He tried to hold the POS payment card machine when he touched the cabin crew. He did not touch her intentionally,” the daily quoted him as saying.
Last November, a major controversy erupted after a male passenger allegedly urinated on an elderly woman co-passenger on board an Aid India plane plying from New York to Delhi. He was later arrested and the carrier faced a massive backlash for allegedly mishandling the case.
The latest incident is the eighth one in India where an unruly airline passenger has been arrested, officials said.
