Four more domestic airlines in India have put a Member of Parliament on their no flight list following his outrageous and aggressive behaviour with an airline employee at Visakhapatanam airport on Thursday. With this, the total number of airlines refusing to fly the Telugu Desam Party MP JC Diwakar Reddy has gone up to seven.
Indigo was the first airline to bar Reddy from flying after he allegedly misbehaved with its staff at the check-in counter on Thursday morning. Soon Air India and SpiceJet also announced a similar action against him. On Friday, they were joined by AirAsia, GoAir, Jet Airways and Vistara in putting the MP on their no flight list.
Union Civil Aviation Ministry has ordered a probe into the matter and has asked the Visakhapatanam airport authorities to submit a report along with CCTV footage.
JC Diwakar Reddy, who represents Anantpaur lok Sabha Constituency of Andhra Pradesh, belongs to the same Telugu Desam party to which country’s Civil Aviation Minister P Ashok Gajapatai Raju belongs to.
Diwakar Reddy, known for his aggressive posturing and brusque way of dealing with people, was involved in a fracas with the airport staff for the second time in eight months. He was six term member of the State Assembly on Congress ticket and was elected to lok Sabha in 2014 as Telugu Desam candidate.
In the latest incident, he allegedly damaged the airline property and pushed an employee of Indigo airlines after he was refused boarding pass as he had reported after the counter was closed.
For Visakhapatanam-Hyderabad flight scheduled to leave at 8.10 am, the MP had reported at 7.42 am while the Directorate General of Civil Aviation Regulation requires all the passengers to report 45 minutes before the scheduled take off time.
The CCTV footage shows the MP noisily arguing with the employee at the counter and lifting the printer from the desk before banging it back.He could also be seen rushing after another senior official of the airlines demanding the Boarding Pass claiming that he had come on time.
Apparently, the airlines issued him the Boarding Pass on the intervention of the Gajapatati Raju, who was flying by the same flight, and was in another part of the Visakhapatanam airport when the incident occurred.
Initially, the airlines officials refused to comment on the incident and did not lodge any complaint with the police. But after a preliminary probe the IndiGo decided to take action in the matter and barred the MP from flying on its planes.