Mumbai: Air India Express Staff Assaulted By Female Passenger At Airport Counter; Detained

Mumbai: A female passenger assaulted a female staff member at the Air India Express counter in Mumbai Airport. According to reports, the incident occurred on Sunday, and the passenger was later handed over to the police.

An Air India Express spokesperson confirmed to PTI the event in a statement, explaining that the passenger had misbehaved with the staff member of their ground operations partner. The situation was promptly addressed by the Duty Manager, who involved the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), leading to the passenger being taken into police custody following the airline’s Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

Similar Incident Reported Earlier

In a similar incident reported earlier, another female passenger, Bandana Mishra, in her forties, was involved in a disturbance aboard a Varanasi-Mumbai IndiGo flight on June 24th. Mishra allegedly abused the pilot and crew members, causing a significant commotion during the flight.

The flight, which took off after a delay of approximately 30 minutes, saw Mishra requesting a seat change from her initially allotted seat 9 to seat 16. Despite the crew accommodating her request, she declined the new seat and began verbally abusing the crew over the flight delay and the quality of water provided.

The crew initially attempted to calm her, but her behaviour escalated, leading to a verbal confrontation about using the washroom. Other passengers, troubled by her outburst, complained to the crew. Even after being warned, Mishra continued to create a scene. However, just 10 minutes before the flight was scheduled to land, Mishra suddenly apologised to the crew and requested drinking water, calming down thereafter.

Upon landing, based on the crew's complaint, Mishra was booked by the police under Section 336 of the Indian Penal Code for acts endangering life and under provision 22 of the Aircraft Act for threatening a crew member, which may interfere with their duties.