The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Tuesday imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakhs on Air India for not reporting the December 6, 2022, incident, wherein a passenger onboard its Paris-Delhi flight allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and the blanket of a woman flyer to the civil aviation regulator. Air India also allegedly delayed in referring the matter to its internal committee.
The DGCA had earlier issued a show-cause notice to the accountable manager of Air India as to why enforcement action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations pertaining to passengers' misbehaviour onboard the Paris-New Delhi flight on December 6.
This was the second 'pee gate' case after a man allegedly urinated on an elderly woman on an Air India flight from New York to New Delhi on November 26, 2022. In this case, a man in an inebriated state allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger’s blanket on an Air India flight on December 6 while the flight was coming from Paris to Delhi.
Another breach of safety allegedly occurred on the same Paris-New Delhi flight when a drunk flyer was caught smoking in the toilet of the aircraft.
The accused in the November 26 incident, Shankar Mishra, was drunk when he allegedly urinated on an elderly female co-passenger in the business class of an Air India New York-Delhi flight. He later claimed the woman had urinated on herself.
An Air India internal committee then conducted an inquiry and imposed a four-month flying ban on him. However, disagreeing with the findings of the internal inquiry, Shankar Mishra said the four-month flying ban on him is based on an incorrect understanding of the layout of the aircraft.
Mishra said he was in the process of appealing the decision in accordance with the applicable rules.
While imposing the ban, the airline said an independent three-member internal committee had found Mishra to be covered under the definition of 'unruly passenger'.