Untoward incidents on flights seem to be continuing despite airlines' actions on passengers and the civil aviation regulator's proceedings on airlines. With the Air India pee gate still fresh in memory, SpiceJet on Monday de-boarded two passengers on a Delhi-Hyderabad flight for alleged misbehaviour.
SpiceJet alleged that the two passengers harassed the cabin crew, after which they were offloaded at Delhi airport.
Videos of the incident shot by other passengers were doing rounds on social media platforms. At first, the cabin crew is seen to be engaged in an argument with one of the passengers, after which another passenger joined in the argument. A Twitter user said that the incident caused a 1.5-hour delay.
The passengers were later handed over to the security for "unruly and inappropriate" behaviour.
The incident comes close on the heels of the Air India row. On November 26, 2022, a Mumbai-based businessman named Shankar Mishra allegedly urinated on a woman passenger in the business class of a US-Delhi Air India flight. On January 4, Mishra, was banned from flying with Air India for 30 days.
The aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), later issued notices to the officials and crew of the Air India flight, asking why no action should be taken against them for "dereliction" of duty in the case. According to the DGCA, laws pertaining to controlling unruly passengers on board were not followed, and the airline's conduct was unprofessional and demonstrated a systemic failure.