Air India peeing case: Airline de-rosters 4 cabin crew members, 1 pilot

Air India’s four cabin crew members and one pilot, who were on the New York-Delhi flight on November 26 when a female passenger was urinated upon by male co-passenger Shankar Mishra, have been issued show-cause notices and de-rostered pending an investigation, said the airline’s Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson on Saturday.

“Air India acknowledges that it could have handled these matters better, both in the air and on the ground, and is committed to taking action,” Wilson said, referring to not only the November 26 incident but also the December 6 incident that took place on the airline’s Paris-Delhi flight wherein a male passenger had urinated on the blanket of a female co-passenger.

“We regret and are pained about these experiences,” Wilson said, adding that the airline is reviewing its policy on serving alcohol. He said the airline’s incident reporting procedures are presently paper-based and therefore, it has signed a letter of intent last month to acquire a license for Coruson, “the market-leading” provider of incident management software.

Delhi Police on Saturday arrested Mishra from Bengaluru. American financial services company Wells Fargo on Friday said that it has terminated Mishra, who was a Vice-President at the firm.

Wilson said “four cabin crew and one pilot” who were on the November 26 flight have been issued show cause notices and de-rostered pending investigation. Internal investigations into whether there were lapses by other staff were ongoing “on aspects including the service of alcohol on the flight, incident handling, complaint registration on board and grievance handling”, he added.

The CEO said Air India is commencing a comprehensive education program to strengthen crews’ awareness of and compliance with policies on the handling of incidents and unruly passengers and to better equip crew to empathetically assist those affected.

Air India is reviewing the meeting frequency of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA)-prescribed “internal committee”, tasked with assessing incidents so that cases are assessed and decisions reached in a more timely manner.

The airline is also in the process of deploying iPads to pilots and senior cabin crew members, he said. “When used together (with Coruson software), the crew will be able to enter voyage and incident reports electronically, which will then be rapidly and automatically routed to relevant parties including, as required, the regulator,” he mentioned.

The DGCA had on January 5 said that the November 26 incident was brought to the regulator’s notice only on January 4. Meanwhile, Wilson on Saturday said that the airline received the complaint from the female passenger on November 27.

Air India acknowledged receipt and commenced engaging in correspondence with the affected passenger’s family on November 20, he noted. The airline commenced a refund of the ticket on December 2, with receipt of funds acknowledged by the victim’s family on December 16, he said.

Air India initiated the DGCA-prescribed “internal Committee”, tasked with assessing incidents and which comprises a retired judge, a representative from a passengers’ association, and a representative from another Indian commercial airline, on December 10, he said. “The file was passed to the Committee on December 20 and a 30-day interim travel ban imposed on the same date,” he mentioned.

The airline convened four meetings between the senior airline staff, the victim and her family on December 20, December 21, December 26 and December 30 to discuss actions being taken and the progress thereof, he said.

“When the victim’s family requested that Air India lodge a police report during the meeting on December 26, it did so on December 28,” he mentioned.