Less than two weeks after being reprimanded by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Air India was slapped with a fine of Rs 30 lakh by the aviation regulator on Friday as part of its enforcement actions on the airline for failing to follow procedure on the AI-102 New York-Delhi flight.
The licence of the yet unnamed pilot-in-command of the flight has been suspended for three months for failing to discharge his duties as per the rules. In addition, a penalty of Rs 3 lakh has been imposed on director-in-flight services of Air India.
DGCA issued showcause notices to the accountable manager of Air India, director in-flight services, 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.
The incident pertains to passenger misbehavior which occurred on the AI-102 flight on November 26, 2022 came to the notice of DGCA on January 4, 2023, wherein a male passenger conducted himself in a disorderly manner and allegedly relieved himself on a female passenger.
Tata Group-promoted Air India derostered and issued showcause notice to four cabin crew and one pilot who served on that flight. Shankar Mishra, the former Well Fargo employee who is accused of urinating on the elderly woman passenger, was handed-down a ban for four months by Air India on Thursday.
Also read: Retail investment in warehousing through fractional route
Earlier in the month, Air India claimed to have initiated steps to strengthen and improve the ways of addressing such incidents in the future. The airline said it will review serving of alcohol in flight, deploy iPads to pilots and senior cabin crew to report incidents electronically and review the meeting frequency of the DGCA-prescribed “Internal Committee”, tasked with assessing incidents.
The Internal Committee comprises a retired judge, a representative from a passengers’ association, and a representative from another Indian commercial airline.