Airlines must curb unruly behaviour in skies: DGCA

The advisory came even as a man identified as Wells Fargo executive Shankar Mishra remained absconding after allegedly urinating on a co-passenger on an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi in November.

He was sacked by Wells Fargo on Friday.

The regulator said all post-holders, pilots and cabin crew have either failed to act or have taken inappropriate action in the recent incidents.

In the advisory, DGCA said the captain, or the pilot in command of the aircraft, has to be responsible for the safety of all passengers, crew and cargo, and for maintaining flight discipline, as well as for the operation and safety of the aircraft during a flight.

The captain must quickly assess if the cabin crew is in a position to control a situation and, accordingly, relay this information to the airline’s central control on ground for further action.

In addition, in case of an unruly passenger on a flight, civil aviation rules mandate airline representatives to lodge a first information report with security agencies at the airport and hand over the passenger, once the aircraft lands.

The cabin crew are responsible for handling unruly passengers as per protocol and to defuse a critical situation till it becomes clear that there is no way to resolve it through verbal communication or a written notice to the passenger, it said.

Restraining devices should be used when all conciliatory approaches have been exhausted, the DGCA added.

The director-in-flight services is the nodal officer responsible for reporting any such incident, it said.

“Head of operations are hereby advised to sensitize pilots, cabin crew and director-in-flight services of the respective airlines on the topic of handling unruly passengers through appropriate means under intimation to the DGCA.” it said in the advisory.

On Thursday, the DGCA pulled up Air India Ltd for the way it handled the incident involving Mishra, describing the airline’s conduct as “unprofessional” and “devoid of empathy”.

Wells Fargo said, “Wells Fargo holds employees to the highest standards of professional and personal behaviour, and we find these allegations deeply disturbing. This individual has been terminated from Wells Fargo. We are cooperating with the law enforcement and ask that any additional inquires be directed to them.”

Several incidents involving passenger misbehaviour have reported in the last few weeks, including a heated argument between a passenger and cabin crew on board an IndiGo Istanbul-New Delhi flight on 16 December.

A mid-air scuffle between passengers was reported on a Thai Airways Bangkok-Kolkata flight on 26 December.

In a separate incident, a passenger relieved himself on a vacant seat and the blanket of a fellow passenger on an Air India Paris-Delhi flight on 6 December. An investigation is currently underway in the matter.