Russian Indian actress Evgenia Belskaia said the situation escalated after the pilot resorted to counter-accusation and blamed the passengers for adding to the delay by arguing and questioning.
While agreeing that hitting the pilot was unfortunate, Belskaia said people were “really angry” as they were made to sit on a flight for two hours.
“Of course, it’s wrong to hit the pilot 100 per cent, I will not agree with that. But why was he blaming passengers in this, he was supposed to understand and support them,” Belskaia said in a video posted on her Instagram handle.
Shocking! Passenger assaults Indigo pilot announcing flight delay due to fog
“So the story is my team; they had a flight Delhi to Goa…7.40 am. They came to the airport by let’s say 6 a.m. They came up very early, they came there. Then the IndiGo flight was saying like every hour, it’s a one-hour delay, two-hour delay. So like this, they’ve been waiting for ten hours,” the actress said narrating the initial incident when the passenger in yellow hoodie assaulted the pilot.
“Then they told them that they can enter the airplane. They enter the airplane and in an airplane, they’d be sitting for two hours waiting, so people were really angry. And of course, they’ve been asking questions from the crew, why it’s like this (and) when we going to leave and all.”
“Then this pilot came and said that you guys are asking too many questions. Because of you we missed our line/our turn. Now you will have to wait more.”
The accused, identified as Sahil Kataria, was charged under Section 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 290 (punishment for creating public nuisance) of the IPC and Section 22 of the Aircraft Rules.
Later, Sahil Kataria was also declared ‘unruly’ and added to the ‘no-fly’ list.
Reacting to the incident, civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said “unruly” passenger behaviour is unacceptable and “will be dealt with strongly” in line with existing legal provisions.
Scindia on flyer assaulting Indigo pilot: ‘Incidences of unruly behaviour are unacceptable, will be dealt with strongly in line with existing legal provisions’
Hours after Scindia’s statement, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issued SOPs to airlines regarding flight cancellations during adverse weather conditions. The issue mandates the airlines to cancel flights if the delay happens to be beyond a period of three hours.
Airlines shall be required to publish accurate real-time information regarding delays of their flights, which shall be published on:
- The respective website of the airline.
- Through advance information to affected passengers by SMS/ WhatsApp and email.
- Display of updated information regarding flight delays to passengers waiting at the airports.
- Appropriate sensitisation of the airline staff at the airports to suitably communicate with and continuously guide; inform the passengers about flight delays.
(With agencies input)
