New Delhi: In yet another case of unruly passenger behaviour mid-air, a case has been registered against a US citizen in Mumbai for allegedly smoking in the bathroom and misbehaving with other passengers on Air India London-Mumbai flight on March 11, reported ANI. The man even tried to open the door of the flight after which the crew on board tied his hands and legs.
The agency reported citing Mumbai police that the 37-year-old man has been identified as Ramakant and a case has been registered at the Sahar Police Station in Mumbai.
The police said that the man tried to open the door of the flight and said that he also has some medicines in his bag. However, no such object was found in his bag. According to ANI, Mumbai police said that the accused's samples have been sent for examination to confirm if he was in an inebriated condition or was mentally disturbed.
Air India spokesperson has said that the airline has informed the regulator about the entire incident. "A passenger on flight AI130 from London-Mumbai was found smoking in lavatory & behaved in unruly & aggressive manner despite repeated warnings. He was handed over to the security personnel upon the flight’s arrival in Mumbai. The regulator has been duly informed of the incident," ANI quoted the spox as saying.
A case has been registered under Indian Penal Code (IPC) section 336 (whoever does any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life or the personal safety of others) and Aircraft Act 1937, 22 (refuse to follow a lawful instruction given by the Pilot-in-Command), 23 (Assault and other acts endangering safety or jeopardizing good order and discipline) and 25 (for smoking), reported ANI citing Mumbai police.
According to the report, a crew member of Air India told the Sahar Police "Smoking is not allowed on the flight but as he went to the bathroom the alarm started to ring and when we all crew ran towards the bathroom saw he had a cigarette in his hand. We immediately threw the cigarette from his hand. Then Ramakant started shouting at all our crew members. Somehow we took him to his seat. But after some time he tried to open the door of the aircraft. All the passengers got scared because of his behavior and he started acting gimmick on the flight. He was not ready to listen to us and was shouting. Then we tied his hands and legs and made him sit on the seat."
The crew member said that the man didn't stop and started banging his head. "One person among the passenger was a doctor. He came and checked him. Then Ramakant said that he has some medicine in his bag we didn't find any but an e-cigarette was recovered while checking the bag," the police added.
Ramkant was handed over to the Sahar police after the flight landed. Police said that the accused is of Indian origin but a citizen of the United States of America and holds a US passport.
The case comes days after, a passenger onboard an American Airlines flight reportedly urinated on a fellow male traveller in an inebriated state. The incident took place on a New York-Delhi flight of the Airlines which took off from New York and landed at the IGI airport in Delhi.
The airline said in its complaint, "Upon aircraft's arrival, Purser informed that pax was heavily intoxicated. He urinated on pax seated on 15G. We along with the CISF officer (at Delhi's IGI airport) disembarked the passenger from the aircraft who was still in an intoxicated condition. On basis of the above, we would be cancelling his travelling his return and future travel on our flight."