The Washington Post newspaper reported on the court scandal that may affect the most prominent Indian carrier, Air India. It all started with the fact that a drunk tourist urinated on fellow passengers right in the cabin of this carrier’s plane, shocking the passengers and the crew, but the most affected tourist was also extremely dissatisfied with the attitude of the crew and the situation in general and hopes to receive a huge compensation – as with the company where the passenger who “distinguished himself” works, as well as from the air carrier.
The scandal itself happened a few weeks ago, its perpetrator was arrested by the New Delhi police in Bangalore and temporarily put in jail. This was the passenger who, on an Air India flight from JFK to Indira Gandhi Mishra International Airport, was “totally drunk” and urinated on another passenger. “He unbuttoned his pants, urinated on me, and continued to stand there until the person sitting next to me patted him and told him to return to his seat,” the injured tourist said in her appeal to the police. On the plane, she sat a row behind an inadequate passenger.
The victim also stated that she wanted to detain the tourist in hot pursuit, but the police brought the sober tourist to her “against her will.” “He apologized and begged me not to press charges against him. Against the backdrop of his apology, as well as my shock and trauma, it was difficult for me to insist on his arrest or press charges against him,” the victim explained. The lawyers also assured that an agreement had been reached that the tourist would pay for the cleaning of the woman’s belongings.
However, in a few weeks, she returned the money, and then initiated a legal process. Meanwhile, the “distinguished” tourist was fired from the Wells Fargo company, and the carrier, on whose flight the incident took place, has already filed claims with India’s aviation regulator – the General Directorate of Civil Aviation, saying that the airline’s behavior “is unprofessional.” He sent a message to airline officials and flight crew asking them to explain “why they should not be prosecuted for failing to meet their regulatory obligations.” In response, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson said the airline was “deeply concerned” about passengers who had “suffered by the bad actions of their fellow passengers”. “Air India recognizes that it could have done a better job of dealing with these issues both in the air and on the ground,” he said. He also announced that the crew of the flight where everything happened has been removed from the airline’s register, and “an internal investigation into the alcohol products and how employees handled the incident is ongoing.”
The fact is that the tourist made a separate complaint about the crew’s attitude. She stated that her clothes, shoes, and bag were “soaked in urine” and that the crew “refused to touch them, sprayed my bag and shoes with disinfectant, took me to the bathroom, and gave me a set of pajamas and socks from the airline.” She then asked for another seat but was told there were no seats. After she refused to take her dirty seat, she was given a reclining seat — a small seat designed for short-term use by the crew — for the remainder of the flight. At the same time, the witnesses noted that the seats in the business class were free.
It should be noted that, unfortunately, this is not the first similar incident in the past 2022 with irresponsibly drunk tourists. So, in June 2022, one of the tourists demonstratively urinated on another right on board the resort flight, which led to a fight on board the liner, a forced landing, and massive viral videos on TikTok. The original incident occurred on board the Jet2 airline on a flight from London to the island of Crete.
In September 2022, a similar “person” disrupted an airliner flight en route from Manchester (Great Britain) to Tenerife (Spain). According to the Mirror newspaper, the plane of the British low-cost airline Ryanair made an emergency landing when one of the passengers needed a seat right in front of everyone. Usually, such incidents were blamed on British tourists, who, according to tradition, get drunk before the start of the flight.