Air India Flight To London Returns To Delhi After Flier "Harms" Cabin Crew

An Air India flight to London returned to Delhi today after an unruly passenger allegedly harmed two cabin crew members, the airline has said. The flier has been deboarded and a police case registered.

The Air India said in a statement today that a flight to London's Heathrow airport returned shortly after take-off due to "serious unruly behaviour of a passenger".

"Not heeding to verbal and written warnings, the passenger continued with unruly behaviour including causing physical harm to two of the cabin crew members. The pilot in command decided to return to Delhi and the passenger was handed over to the security personnel upon landing. An FIR has also been lodged with the police," the airline said.

Family members of the passenger, Jaskirat, have claimed that he was mentally unstable. 

Stressing that the "safety, security and dignity" of everyone on board is important to Air India, the statement added, "We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers and have rescheduled the flight to depart for London this afternoon."

The Air India Boeing 787 had taken off at 6.35 am and returned to Delhi at 9.42 am, according to Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). The civil aviation regulator is also investigating the incident.

Airline crew, pilots and accountable managers have failed to act on unruly passengers including those found smoking, drunk, indulging in altercations, and inappropriately touching or sexually harassing co-passengers or flight crew, the DGCA said today and issued an advisory asking airlines to ensure action and immediate reporting in cases of unruly passenger behaviour to the regulator as per rules to ensure safe operations. It asked the head of operations at airlines to ensure sensitisation of staff on handling unruly passengers.

Flightradar24, the popular aviation flight tracker app indicates that the jetliner altered course to return to India when it was flying near Peshawar in Pakistan.

In an interview with NDTV this February, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson had said airline crew often suffer physical and verbal abuse on duty. "Not a day goes by without us receiving reports about passenger behaviour. There is a degradation of passenger behaviour onboard aircraft and a standard of decorum is required," he had said.

He had also suggested a change in India's airline laws in order to allow airlines the discretion to deny someone passage, especially when they have misbehaved with fellow passengers or crew.

In November last year, a drunk man urinated on a woman co-passenger on board an Air India plane flying from New York to Delhi. The episode, which came to be known as Pee-Gate, had sparked a massive debate on passengers' conduct, prompting airlines to issue tough guidelines to tackle unruly fliers.