New Delhi: An FIR has been registered against a Nepal national for abusing a cabin crew member onboard and breaking the lavatory door inside the Air India flight A-188 after taking off from Toronto, a Delhi Police official said on Wednesday.
According to the FIR, accessed by IANS, the complainant Aditya Kumar, cabin crew member said that the passenger, Mahesh Singh Pandi, a resident of Nepal, changed his seat from 26 E to 26 F and he started abusing the economy class crew.
“So we informed the PIC and gave him the oral warning but after lunch service we got the lavatory (LAV) smoke alarm in 5A-IR, so we opened the LAV door and he was caught with cigarette lighter and smoking smell was there,” read the FIR by Kumar.
“The passenger pushed me back and then he ran away to his seat 26F and we were able to stop him at R 3 door. He again pushed me and abused me as well. He also broke the lavatory door 3F-RC. I immediately informed the captain, and as per the captain’s instructions, with the help of cabin crew Punit Sharma, as we only have male crew, we tried to restrain him according to the standard operating procedures (SOP),” the further read.
“However, we were not able to control him, so we asked for assistance from more passengers. We managed to get 10 passengers and two crew members to successfully restrain him. But even after being restrained, he continued to act out, and I went back to my allocation in first class, leaving Punit to handle the situation,” the FIR said.
“Punit informed me that the unruly passenger was still trying to assault other passengers. Upon checking, I found that many passengers were crying because of him, so I decided to relocate passengers with children to the business class, as we didn’t have any available seats in economy,” said Aditya in his complaint.
“Our crew closely monitored him and informed the captain periodically. We also found his bag, which I handed over to security when completing the enclosed unruly passenger form, which was submitted to the duty officer at IGI Airport police station,” said Aditya.
A senior police official said that a case under sections 323, 506, 336 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 22, 23, and 25 of the Aircraft Rules at IGI police station on July 9 and further investigation is going on.
