Peegate Peegate: DGCA imposes Rs 30 lakh fine on Air India, suspends pilot's licence for 3 months
New Delhi/IBNS: Aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation Friday slapped a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Air India and suspended the licence of the pilot-in-charge of its New York-Delhi flight on which a man peed on an elderly female co-passenger, media reports said.
"We acknowledge gaps in our reporting and are taking relevant steps to ensure that they are addressed," said the airline after the watchdog's action.
"We're also strengthening our crews' awareness of and compliance with policies on the handling of incidents involving unruly passengers," Air India said in a statement today.
In addition, DGCA also imposed a fine of Rs 3 lakh on the director-in-flight services of Air India for "failing to discharge her duties".
Shankar Mishra, the man who allegedly peed on the female passenger in an inebriated state, had walked away when the Air India flight landed in New Delhi.
The incident happened on November 26.
On November 27, the victim wrote a letter to Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran relating her horrific experience on the Air India flight.
However, Air India swung into action more than a month after the incident. It filed an FIR with the Delhi Police on January 4, claiming that it felt that both sides settled the matter.
This was when the incident came to the notice of DGCA.
Mishra was arrested by the Delhi Police two days later, six weeks after the incident.
On January 6, the DGCA had issued a show-cause notice to the Accountable Manager of Air India, the Director of in-flight Services of Air India, and all the pilots and cabin crew members of that flight as to why enforcement action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations. They were given two weeks' time to submit their reply.
The Tata group-owned airline submitted its reply this morning.
This comes a day after the airline imposed a four-month flying ban on the passenger, Shankar Mishra, for the urinating incident.
The ban was in addition to the 30-day ban it had imposed on him earlier.
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