New Delhi: Following a series of recent incidents involving unruly behaviour of passengers, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has issued an advisory to all airlines, asking them to focus on existing provisions that deal with occurrences that have the “potential of compromising the safety of aircraft operations”.
The advisory comes after an Air India flight on its way to London was forced to return to Delhi Monday, due to “serious unruly behavior” of a passenger who hurt two cabin crew members. Upon return shortly after departure, the airlines handed over the male passenger to security personnel.
This incident follows similar ones on board aircraft, including two occurrences on board Air India. The first was on 26 November on a New York-Delhi flight when an inebriated co-traveller allegedly urinated on a 70-year old woman. The other was on 6 December on an Air India flight from Paris to India.
The aviation regulator’s advisory on 10 April read: “In the recent past, DGCA has noticed a few incidents of smoking in aircraft, consumption of alcoholic beverages resulting in unruly behavior, altercations between passengers and sometimes inappropriate touching or sexual harassment by the passengers on board the aircraft during the flight, wherein post holders, pilots and Cabin Crew members have failed to take appropriate actions. Such incidents have potential of compromising the safety of aircraft operations.”
Pointing out that an individual or an airline’s responsibility for handling such incidents have been specified under various provisions of the Aircraft Rules 1937 and DGCA regulations, the aviation regulator advised all airlines to sensitise their pilots, cabin crew and post holders to control unruly passengers through appropriate means. It emphasised on training programmes to ensure effective monitoring, and the maintenance of good order and discipline on board “so that safety of aircraft operations is not jeopardised in any manner”.
As per the advisory, the airlines will categorise all cases of unruly behaviour on-board into three levels, and based on this, the airline will decide the duration for which the unruly passenger will be banned from flying.
Unruly behaviour such as physical gestures, verbal harassment and rowdy inebriation will be classified as level 1, while physically abusive behaviour, including pushing, kicking, hitting, grabbing or inappropriate touching or sexual harassment, will fall into level 2. Life-threatening behaviour such as damage to aircraft operating systems, or physical violence such as choking, eye gouging, murderous assault, attempted or actual breach of the flight crew compartment, will be categorised as level 3.
As per existing rules, the DGCA noted that disorderly passengers need to be made aware that they are likely to be breaking the law and could be arrested on arrival at the destination.
“… to defuse a critical situation until it becomes clear that there is no way to resolve it through verbal communication and written notice to passengers. Applying restraining devices should be used when all conciliatory approaches have been exhausted,” the DGCA said, reiterating the responsibilities of the cabin crew.
It added that the provisions under Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR), makes the pilot-in-command responsible for assessing the situation quickly if the cabin crew can control the situation and accordingly relay this information to the airline’s central control on the ground for further action.
“In addition, para 4.13 of the said CAR mandates that upon landing of the aircraft, the Airline representative shall lodge FIR with the concerned security agency at aerodrome, to whom, the unruly passengers shall be handed over,” it added.
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