The Air India flight was turned back after repeated complaints of an unruly passenger. Photo / Daniel Eledut, Unsplash
The Air India flight was turned back after repeated complaints of an unruly passenger. Photo / Daniel Eledut, Unsplash
An Air India service to London Heathrow was diverted back to Delhi on Monday following an alleged assault on cabin crew from an unruly passenger.
AI111 was just leaving Indian Airspace on the nine-hour trip on April 10, when pilots had to turn around and headback towards its port of departure.
The Hindustan Times reported that a male passenger was caught pulling the hair of a female flight attendant, just 15 minutes after takeoff.
After being issued a warning from the flight crew, the Air India service decided to turn around and head for home after the passenger’s “continued unruly behaviour”.
The 6.35am departure returned to Delhi before 11.30am, where the unruly passenger was handed over to airport police.
AI111 to London Heathrow was diverted back to Delhi just hours after take-off. Photo / FlightRadar24, screen grab
“Air India flight AI 111, scheduled to operate Delhi-London Heathrow on April 10, 2023, returned to Delhi shortly after departure due to the serious unruly behaviour of a passenger on board,” the airline said in a statement.
“Not heeding to verbal and written warnings, the passenger continued with unruly behaviour including causing physical harm to two of the cabin crew members. The pilot in command decided to return to Delhi and the passenger was handed over to the security personnel upon landing.”
The passenger accused of assaulting airline staff was taken off the plane and handed to police. Air India apologised to affected travellers and the remainder of the 220 passengers were re-accommodated on a later departure to London, that afternoon.
“Safety, security and dignity of all on board is important to us at Air India,” said the airline.
‘Pee Gate’: Air India’s U-turn on unruly passengers
Earlier this year Air India was criticised for its handling of unruly passengers.
In January it came to light that a business class passenger had urinated on another traveller during a New York to Delhi service.
After a long investigation Air India was fined ₹30 ($59,000) by India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation for its own mishandling of the inebriated passenger.
Dubbed ‘Pee-Gate’, the trial of Shankar Mishra - who was accused of urinating on his fellow passenger - also highlighted Air India’s mishandling of the incident. It was revealed that it took three months for the airline to act following the November 26 incident.
The case forced the airline to revise its guidelines for serving alcohol aboard its aircraft.
From January 19 the policy was updated to allow crew “to deny boarding / refuse service of liquor or remove any unconsumed alcohol” in cases where the travellers are deemed to pose a hazard to crew, fellow passengers or operations.
