Days after two incidents of drunk men urinating on women on Air India flights came forth, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Friday issued an advisory to the Head of Operations of all Scheduled Airlines for tackling unruly travelers outlining that “restraining devices should be used when all conciliatory approaches have been exhausted". The advisory warned that the airline staff will face action if they fail to act against passengers who are unruly or behave inappropriately.
The DGCA has also sought a report from Tata Group-owned Air India on an incident of a drunk passenger allegedly urinating on the blanket of a female passenger on the airline's Paris-New Delhi flight last month, which it did not report to the regulator. Air India on Thursday confirmed the incident, which took place on December 6 last year.
“In case a situation - relating to handling an unruly passenger comes up, the pilot-in-command is responsible for assessing the situation quickly if the cabin crew can control the situation and accordingly relay this information to the airline's central control on the ground for further action. If it becomes difficult to handle the situation with "verbal communication", applying restraining devices should be used when all conciliatory approaches have been exhausted," the advisory said.
"Head of operations are hereby advised to sensitize pilots, cabin crew and Director-in-flight Services of their respective airlines on the topic of handling of unruly passengers through appropriate means under intimation to DGCA" - the advisory reads.
"Non-action/ inappropriate action/ omission by the airlines towards such untoward incidents has tarnished the image of air travel in different segments of society," it further highlights.
"In the recent past, DGCA has noticed a few incidents of unruly behavior and inappropriate conduct by the passengers on board the aircraft during flight, wherein it is observed that post holders, pilots and cabin crew members have failed to take appropriate actions," the statement reads.
Earlier, the DGCA on Thursday issued notices to the officials and crew of the New York-Delhi flight, asking why action should not be taken against them for "dereliction" of duty while handling the November 26 'urination' incident. The DGCA held that Air India's conduct appeared to be "unprofessional" in the two incidents.