Over sixty passengers have been placed in the no fly list in the past year by the directorate general of civil aviation (DGCA), the central government revealed a Lok Sabha reply on Monday.
“A total of 63 passengers have been placed in “No Fly List” for the last one year, as recommended by the airline’s internal committee. These include two incidents of urinating that have come to the notice of DGCA in the last one year,” noted minister of state of civil aviation, Gen (Retd) VK Singh in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
The majority of the passengers placed in “No Fly List” were for violations related to not wearing masks or not obeying the instructions of the crew members, the reply added.
The urination incident took place on Air India flight AI102, operating between New York and New Delhi, on November 26, 2022, where a passenger relieved himself on a fellow woman passenger in an inebriated condition.
Replying to questions posed by Communist Party of India MP Dr John Brittas, and BJP MP Brij Lal, the minister of state of civil aviation said these passengers were placed in the No-Fly List for violating the DGCA’s Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR), Section 3: Air Transport, Series M, and Part VI titled “Handling of unruly / disruptive passengers” in September 2017.
“The CAR was notified as a measure to deal with the issue related to handling of unruly/disruptive passengers which also provides measures to pre-empt such incidents by way of training of flight crew, cabin crew and ground staff in soft skills to deal with unruly passengers besides how to detect, diffuse and prevent critical situation. It also provides for training of such operative personnel for dealing with conflict and its aftermath, ways/means to mitigate situations arising due to long waiting lines, flight being overbooked, delays and diversion/cancellation as well as lack of information,” said Singh in his reply.
In the reply, Gen (Retd) VK Singh, noted that on the No-Fly List maintained by DGCA, till date, there are 143 passengers who have been placed in the ‘No Fly List’ since 2017 for a specific period.
The ministry of civil aviation officially created the no-fly list on 8 September 2017.
In November 2017, Birju Kishore Salla, a jeweler from Mumbai, became the first passenger to be placed on the no-fly list over his hijack scare resulting in a flight being diverted for an emergency landing in Ahmedabad.
The reply added that due to the non-compliance of the civil aviation requirements (CAR), the DGCA has issued two show cause notices to Air India in January 2023 and penalized the airline for delay in reporting of the incidents.
With regards to the incidents related to urination on flights, the DGCA imposed a financial penalty of ₹30 lakh on Air India for the AI-102 flight, New York to New Delhi dated 26 November 2022.
A financial penalty of ₹3 lakh has been imposed on director, flight services of the airline along with suspension of the License of Pilot in Command of the flight for three months.
In the case of flight AI-142, Paris to New Delhi dated December 6, 2022, another financial penalty of ₹10 lakh was imposed by DGCA on Air India.
In the December 6 incident, where one passenger was allegedly caught smoking in the lavatory, was drunk and not adhering to the crew instructions; and another passenger allegedly relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of a fellow female passenger when she went to the lavatory.
“In order to deal with the unlawful/disruptive behavior of passengers on board, DGCA has issued Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) Section 3-Air Transport, Series M Part VI titled -”Handling of Unruly Passengers”. Whenever an airline receives a complaint of unruly behavior from the pilot-in-command, the incident is referred by the airlines to an ‘Internal Committee’ constituted by them as per provisions of the CAR” stated the minister of state, civil aviation in his reply.
