[V.Narayan]

Several questions have been raised on the thread regarding DGCA and its fines on Air India, Air India's Head of In-Flight Services and the show cause notice to the Accountable Manager* of Air India and suspension of the Captain.

My two paisa bit below having dealt with the DGCA for some years.

The DGCA is a regulator, license/permit giver and quasi-judicial authority that receives its powers from Parliament to oversee all regulation and flight safety issues and co-ordination for airports, airlines, training institutes, all civil aircraft in India and all personnel who work in these organizations.

The DGCA is well within its ambit to impose fines, suspend aviation personnel, issue show causes notices, revoke licenses etc if the DGCA after an internal investigation believes a violation has occurred and action needs to be taken. Given that flight safety or airport security is often involved the DGCA has powers to act swiftly. This in my opinion is a blessing. If things only went through our sclerotic courts a pilot in violation could keep flying you & me for years before a judgement comes a few years later - same for engineers, accountable managers, etc

The action the DGCA has taken is well within its remit. Without doubt the DGCA must have asked for a written input to its questions from Air India. Air India, regardless of the nonsense floating on social media and the ridiculous statements of Mr Mishra's lawyers, must have been very very careful to put down the facts. Trust me you don't want to mess with a regulator who controls your Air Operator's Permit. DGCA's action has been from a flight safety of the passengers and discipline in the cabin point of view not from a 'has a crime been committed' point of view - that is for the courts to determine. So it is not a question of guilty or not guilty but has an adequate dereliction of duty occured to ask the Captain {or other crew member} to sit on the bench or not. In my opinion hauling up the Captain, In-Flight Services Director & Accountable Manager {order of rank} is absolutely the right thing to do. If they believe they have been wrongly treated they can appeal. I doubt they will.

Note the DGCA has only touched those employed by the airline and have not touched Mr Mishra as that is now a police case for the courts to handle. Air India's written response to the DGCA should be a part of the prosecutors evidence.

We should not mix this up with guilt or otherwise of anyone. In the eyes of the DGCA an incident of some proportion occured on board the aircraft mid-flight. Did the Captain and senior cabin crew display the appropriate degree of leadership, timely action and fairplay to redress the situation and maintain discipline and peace in the cabin? After landing did the crew & Captain do the right thing with regards to reporting, informing the cops etc. Was the training and empowerment provided to the cabin crew adequate for the situation? Did the Captain conduct himself appropriately in terms of explicit or implicit instructions to his crew on disturbing or not disturbing him while he sleeps when an incident occurs {imagine if instead of a passenger incident this was a fire on board}. The crew's fear of waking up the big man says a lot of the tone of the work environment on board that aircraft.

I find it baffling that the extra senior flight crew in the left seat in the cockpit did not consider himself/herself empowered to offer a first class seat to the affected lady passenger. Or the cabin crew believed he wasn't empowered to do so! That pilot in command was in charge of the aircraft while the big man slept. If there was a flight safety incident would he wait for his senior to wake up or would he take action? The working environment inside the aircraft simply doesn't sound healthy at all to my flight ears and the big man is responsible for maintaining the right tone.

* For readers not familiar with this term - The term 'Accountable Manager' is used to describe the single individual who is designated as the person responsible to the DGCA in respect of the functions of the airline, MRO etc and is responsible to the DGCA for all matters of aviation compliance, discipline, flight safety. That person is normally expected to be a senior person with executive and financial authority to do this to the standard required by the DGCA.

[volkman10]

The All-India Cabin Crew Association seeks rostering of de-rostered crew.:

[Jeroen]

Originally Posted by volkman10

The All-India Cabin Crew Association seeks rostering of de-rostered crew.:
]

Well, well, the plot thickens as they say!

Very surprised to hear the involved crew members were not interviewed by the ICC. Apart from professional courtesy, you would expect in a sensitive case as this, they would like to make sure Air India would at least ensure proper due diligence.

The way I read this, is that Air India filed a report, which according to the Indiw Cabin crew association is incorrect, or at least incomplete and the DGCA has based its decision on the, apperently, flawed, report.

Mentioning a seat 9B in an official report whereas there is no seat 9B suggest people were panicking and rushed a decision to appear to be taking decisive action.

Did the DGCA interview the respective crew members?

Jeroen

[volkman10]

More penalty for Air India. This time for two incidents on the Paris - Delhi AI -142 flight.

DGCA fines Air India Rs 10 lakhs.

While an inebriated passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory and not following crew instructions on this flight, another flyer had allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of fellow female passenger when she had gone to the lav.

This time the airline is fined for not timely reporting two unruly passengers on a Paris-Delhi flight (AI-142) of December 6, 2022.

DGCA (had) issued a show cause notice to the accountable manager of Air India as to why enforcement action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations. AI submitted reply to the notice on Monday (Jan 23) and the same was examined. Enforcement action in the form of financial penalty of Rs 10 lakh has been imposed on AI for not reporting the incident to DGCA and delaying in referring the matter to its internal committee, which is a violation of applicable DGCA (rules)

Link

[One]

Originally Posted by volkman10

another flyer had allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of fellow female passenger when she had gone to the lav.

The first incident was news but with so many similar incidents now, it seems to be a peendemic

[volkman10]

Air India makes adjustments to its liquor policy.

[DigitalOne]

Court adjourns Shankar Mishra's, accused in Air India urination case, bail plea to Jan 30

A Delhi court on Friday adjourned Shankar Mishra's petition seeking bail to January 30. Mishra, who is accused of urinating on a woman co-passenger onboard a flight in November last year had filed a fresh bail application seeking regular bail. The court adjourned the matter after noting the investigating officer was not present.

Source

This is no way to treat an accused. First principle of justice is "Innocent until proven guilty".

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

Court adjourns Shankar Mishra's, accused in Air India urination case, bail plea to Jan 30



Source

This is no way to treat an accused. First principle of justice is "Innocent until proven guilty".

You are correct both in principle and in this case. The accused is hardly likely to go around showering others with his 'blessings', and he's also unlikely to be a flight risk (sorry not sorry).

He's going to get away free, it looks like. That 9B thing is going to work in his favour. Any competent lawyer will now claim that Air India made the whole thing up - look, your honour, there isn't even a seat 9B! There appears to be no eyewitness proof AFAIK (except for the victim) and he can claim that the confession and settlement was coerced because he was drunk and cornered - basically under duress and not of sound mind.

Air India has effed up from Chandra to the cabin crew. At this rate, it won't be long when we long for the good ol' sarkar days!

[RedTerrano]

Sigh! What is it with air travellers and body fluids?
This time it's a woman. She spat on the cabin staff and later switched on to beach mode.

After the original incident, numerous people (including Indians) were prompt to tar all Indians, due to the actions of one person.
Will be interesting to see if they extend the same courtesy to this one, who is a woman, and a foreigner to boot.

[thanixravindran]

Going by news reports, looks like the alleged accused has been granted bail as investigation is complete. Hope the charge sheet will be filed soon and framing of charges happens so that case moves quick to trial stage.

[navin]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Sigh! What is it with air travellers and body fluids?

My wife and I took the same plane (UK256) a week before (Jan 24th). Why is it that we get all the boring flights?

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

The key witness is obviously the passenger on seat 9C, right behind Shankar Mishra, and next to the old lady victim.

Originally Posted by DigitalOne

9C was not empty

This news has predictably died down. But it is really interesting to see is what the court has observed during the bail plea hearing.

Additional Sessions Judge Harjyot Singh Bhalla, while granting the bail, maintained that there were contradictions in the statements of the victim and witnesses....

The court, while pronouncing the bail orders, also said that the victim, in her statement had claimed awareness/involvement of co-passenger seated on seat 9C. “...suffice is to say that at this stage, the diary containing the statement of the said witness was perused. The statement of the passenger at seat 9C reveals that the passenger has not supported the claim made by the victim... which, of course, cannot also be completely brushed aside,” the court said.

Source

MSM/Social Media/Team-BHPians/Wells Fargo etc who judged Shankar Mishra guilty even before the courts did should do a moment of self-reflection.

[greenhorn]

https://www.theweek.in/columns/barkh...-analysis.html

Ina Bannerjee, in her 80s, was seated next to the complainant in the aisle seat. We tracked her down and she was clear that she had neither seen Mishra pee on the alleged victim nor experienced anything herself. All she had seen was the crew cleaning the seat next to her.

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/97827480.cms

So extensive was Mishra’s shaming that the Supreme Court had to step in. “Regarding the Air India incident, look at the names which the man was called on TV,” Justice K M Joseph and Justice B V Nagarathna said recently while hearing a case on increasing cases of hate speech in the country. “He is an undertrial. You have to treat a person with human dignity.”

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by greenhorn

https://www.theweek.in/columns/barkh...-analysis.html

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...w/97827480.cms

The incident IIRC occurred during the lights dimmed phase of the flight when most passengers might have been sleeping or lying down. It is quite possible for the passenger in seat across the aisle not to have noticed something amiss. Many of us sleep quite soundly on flights! So on its own this point does not negate the plaintiff's complaint. It is at best one more data point. Let's wait for the judgement.

[frewper]

Another repeat incident of the same kind.



https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...urces-8479854/