My goodness, talk about misdirected anger…
Airline passenger attacks pilot due to delay
Indian aviation is having a really rough few days due to fog, with Delhi Airport seeing hundreds of flight cancelations and delays due to weather. While this can obviously lead to frustration among passengers, one traveler took things way too far.
This incident happened on Sunday, January 14, 2024, on IndiGo flight 6E2175 from Delhi (DEL) to Goa (GOI). The flight was operated by a two-year-old Airbus A320neo with the registration code VT-ISV. While the flight was scheduled to depart at 7:40AM, the flight ended up being delayed by over 10 hours, all the way to 6PM, due to weather conditions. Obviously that’s an incredibly frustrating delay for all passengers onboard.
By the afternoon, the initial crew had timed out due to limits on the number of hours they can work, so a new crew took over. One of the new pilots was trying to make an announcement to passengers with an update about an additional delay, at which point a passenger ran up from the back of the cabin and physically assaulted him.
IndiGo is deciding what to do with the passenger?!
The passenger who punched the pilot ended up being removed from the aircraft. The pilot filed a complaint against him, so the traveler was taken into police custody. It remains to be seen what kind of legal punishment he’ll face.
An IndiGo official stated the following:
“We have established an internal committee, and the incident has been referred to it. The committee will determine appropriate action against the passenger, including the possibility of placing him on the ‘No Fly List’ under the unruly behaviour category.”
The airline is establishing a committee to decide if it’s appropriate to place this guy on the company’s no fly list?! Like, is there any question of whether this guy would be placed on the no fly list? If this incident doesn’t qualify, then what does?
I suppose this is probably just a standard process that the airline goes through when deciding whether to ban someone or not, but I think there should be no question here.
Bottom line
India is currently seeing quite some operational disruptions in aviation, which is of course frustrating for passengers. However, assaulting a pilot who is keeping passengers informed is never appropriate, though that’s exactly what one traveler on an IndiGo flight did yesterday. The airline is now considering adding him to the no fly list, which should be the obvious course of action.
What do you make of this IndiGo situation?