New Delhi: Stand-up comedian Kunal Karma drew attention for confronting journalist Arnab Goswami onboard Mumbai- Lucknow flight on January 28 following which the IndiGo barred him for the next six months.
Responding to the imposed IndiGo ban, Kunal Kamra thanked the IndiGo pilot who spoke out disapproving the airline’s decision to bar the stand-up comic for six months, HT reported.
“Captain Rohit Mateti ko mera salaam (I salute Captain Rohit Mateti),” the comedian tweeted on Friday.
Captain Rohit Mateti who was also the captain of 6E5317, wrote a letter to the airline asserting that Kamra’s conduct through the flight may be considered “unsavoury” but can not be classified as “Level 1 Unruly passenger”.
The IndiGo Captain also stated the airline management rather than consulting pilot-in-command before taking action on the passenger acted upon the basis of social media posts.
“This is somewhat unprecedented in my 9 years of airline flying,” he wrote.
Kamra, the pilot wrote in a letter to the airline, had complied with every instruction by the cabin crew and apologized to them for the episode more than once.
The IndiGo airline took cognizance of the Pilot’s letter as soon as his letter went viral on social media.
The airline IndiGo said it had taken “cognizance of the letter of the pilot who was operating the flight on which Kunal Kamra and Arnab Goswami were travelling.
“We have received the relevant statements and the internal committee has initiated the investigation regarding this incident,” the airline’s statement read.
The airline had suspended Kamra from flying with the airline for six months after the comedian’s 111-second video went viral.
In the video, Kunal Kamra is heard talking to Goswami, in a style that he claimed was mimicking the news anchor constantly referring to the Republic TV founder as a “coward” and attacks his coverage of the 2015 suicide of Hyderabad Central University student Rohith Vemula.
Meanwhile, Kunal Kamra has come up with video footage of Arnab’s videos from the past where the journalist was a speaker, a voice that would resonate in minds.
But over the past few years, once a remarkably outstanding journalist no longer stands for the people.
The airline received sharp criticism over its decision to ban Kamra from flying with the airline.