In another mid-air brawl, two passengers on an IndiGo flight from Dubai to Mumbai allegedly caused a commotion and hurled insults at co-passengers, staff, and crew members, according to police. The passengers, Dattatreya Bapardekar and John George D’Souza, were under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident. The two were arrested after the flight landed in Mumbai on Wednesday, but a court later granted them bail.
The drunk passengers, residents of Nalasopara in Palghar and Kolhapur, were returning from a year in the Gulf and began celebrating by consuming liquor they had brought from a duty-free shop, according to a Sahar police station official. When co-flyers objected to the commotion, the two men abused them, as did the crew when they intervened and took away their bottles.
An FIR was registered against the two men after a complaint was lodged by the airline. The passengers were booked under section 336 for endangering life and safety of others) of the Indian Penal Code and sections 21, 22 and 25 of Aircraft Rules.
Two Indigo passengers were charged with being drunk and misbehaving with the crew under Section 336 of the IPC and Sections 21, 22, and 25 of the Aircraft Rules. Both were formally arrested, but because the sections were bailable, they were granted bail at the police station. “An additional investigation is underway,” Mumbai Police DCP Dixit Gedam told sources.
While walking down the aisle, one of the passengers was drinking.
The airline in a statement said that the two passengers were found to be in an intoxicated state and continued consuming alcohol onboard despite “multiple warnings”.
“Two passengers travelling on flight 6E 1088 from Dubai to Mumbai were observed to be in an inebriated state and continued consuming alcohol onboard despite multiple warnings from the crew. They verbally abused the crew and co-passengers,” the statement reads.
“As per protocol, they were handed over to the CISF security staff for unruly behaviour. A complaint has been filed at the nearby police station,” it adds.
Seventh incident of unruly behaviour by flyers
According to officials, this is the seventh incident this year in which a case has been filed for unruly behaviour by flyers. A man on a London-Mumbai flight earlier this month was arrested for smoking in the restroom and attempting to open the emergency exit.
Two men were arrested in January for allegedly drinking alcohol on an IndiGo flight from Delhi to Patna. However, the airline clarified that there was no altercation on board the plane. IndiGo had informed ATC that the two passengers were carrying liquor before landing at Patna airport. After landing, the airline also filed an official complaint with the relevant authority at Patna airport.
In December 2022, a video went viral showing a few people involving in a brawl inside a flight from Bangkok to Kolkata. The scuffle broke out onboard a Thai Smile Airways plane. In the clip of the mid-air brawl, which was shared widely on social media, a man can be seen being slapped by a few co-passengers multiple times.
In a similar mid-air scuffle in December last year, a passenger and an air hostess onboard an IndiGo flight from Istanbul to Delhi got into heated exchange. The two were arguing over the choice of meals onboard the flight.