New Delhi

• Air India concluded its internal investigation.
• The complainant approached the crew for assistance after allegedly being urinated on by a fellow passenger.
• The ground staff did not challenge the crew’s assessment.

New Delhi: Air India said on Tuesday that, given the mitigating circumstances and financial loss incurred by the crew during their period of de-rostering as a result of the peeing case, it considers the Commander’s license suspension “excessive” and will assist him in filing an appeal.

On November 26, 2022, Air India concluded its internal investigation into the actions of its crew operating and administrative staff supporting AI102.

The airline stated that the complainant approached the crew for assistance after allegedly being urinated on by a fellow passenger.

“In the absence of any witnesses, the crew took the complainant’s allegation at face value and assisted her by providing fresh clothes, helping clean her belongings, and relocating her to another business class seat of the same type as her original one,” said the airline.

According to Air India, the alleged perpetrator posed no risk to flight safety at any time in the crew’s opinion. “When awoken and confronted with the allegation, the alleged perpetrator was calm, cooperative, and claimed ignorance of the allegation. He had not been served excessive amounts of alcohol by the crew and did not appear to be intoxicated to them. The cabin crew kept the Commander informed on a regular basis. The alleged perpetrator, in the opinion of the crew, posed no risk to flight safety at any time,” it said.

Acknowledgment

Air India admitted that by taking the complainant’s accusation at face value and immediately providing assistance, the matter should have been reported as a prima facie case of a passenger “behaving in a disorderly manner toward other passengers” and thus meeting the description of unruly behavior at paragraph 4.9(d)(ii) of Civil Aviation Requirements, Section 3, Series M, Part VI (theACAR).

According to the airline, the incident should have been classified and reported as such, without prejudice to any subsequent investigation into the facts.

According to the airline, upon receiving the voyage report, ground staff did not challenge the crew’s assessment and, as a result, did not report the incident as an unruly incident.

“Based on the absence of witnesses to the alleged act, that the alleged perpetrator was peaceful, cooperative, and claiming ignorance of the event, that there was no risk to flight safety, and that a resolution had been witnessed between the parties, the crew made a judgment call to record the matter as a (non-reportable) inflight incident rather than a (reportable) case of unruliness. It should also be noted that, in the absence of witnesses to the alleged act, the crew was asked to make a presumption of the accused’s guilt, which violates natural justice and due process,” said Air India.

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•  Air India is fined $37,000 for not handling incidents professionally.
• The man allegedly relieved himself on the 72-year-old woman.
• The man was allowed to disembark as usual, and no immediate action was taken.

NEW DELHI: Indian media reported that Air India was fined $ 37,000 for its handling of an incident in which a drunk senior US bank executive was accused of urinating on a female passenger.

On a November 26 flight from New York to New Delhi, the man allegedly relieved himself on the 72-year-old woman seated in business class, an incident dubbed “peegate” by the media.

According to reports on Friday and Saturday, the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation fined Air India’s director of in-flight services 300,000 rupees in addition to the carrier’s penalty of three million rupees ($37,000).

The pilot’s license was also suspended for three months for “failing to discharge his duties.”

The banker, Indian national Shankar Mishra, was allowed to disembark as usual. No immediate action was taken.

After the story was widely publicized in Indian media, police arrested Mishra.

US bank Wells Fargo fired him from his job as vice president of its Indian operations after the “deeply disturbing” allegations.

Air India was heavily chastised for how it handled the woman’s complaint.  The airline’s CEO was forced to issue an apology.

“Air India acknowledges that it could have handled these matters better, both in the air and on the ground, and is committed to taking action,” chief executive Campbell Wilson said.

The case is the latest embarrassing incident to be reported in India’s booming airline sector in recent months.

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