Air India Pee Gate: Aviation Watchdog Rejects Plea, Upholds Suspension Of Pilot

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has upheld the suspension of the pilot on the Air India flight in which a man urinated on a woman passenger.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has upheld the suspension of the pilot on the Air India flight in which a man urinated on a woman passenger.

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has rejected an appeal to set aside the suspension of an Air India (AI) pilot for allegedly failing to perform his duties as per rules.

The DGCA suspended the pilot for three months who operated a New York-Delhi flight on November 26 in which a passenger, S Mishra, urinated on a woman, a decision that was challenged by the pilot and unions.

Disagreeing with the findings of the internal inquiry into the alleged incident on board an Air India flight where he was accused of urinating on an elderly woman, Shankar Mishra had said the four-month flying ban on him was based on an incorrect understanding of the layout of the aircraft. In a statement issued through his lawyers, Mishra said he was in the process of appealing the decision in accordance with the applicable rules.

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 on November 26 last year. In a surprise twist, he later claimed the woman had urinated on herself.

The airline banned Mishra from flying for a period of four months while saying an independent three-member internal committee found him to be covered under the definition of 'unruly passenger'.

“We would particularly like to point that the Internal Inquiry Committee’s ruling hinges upon their incorrect understanding of the layout of the Aircraft. When the Committee could not find an adequate explanation as to how the accused could have urinated on the complainant sitting on seat 9A without also affecting the passenger on Seat 9C, it has erroneously gone on to assume that there was a seat 9B in the business class in the aircraft,” the statement issued by lawyers Ishanee Sharma and Akshat Bajpai said.

(With inputs from agencies)