NEW DELHI: The Maharaja witnessed his
first in-flight Mughal-e-Azam at 30,000 feet above sea level on Saturday, as two
members of the cabin
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Endangering the lives of 106 passengers and grossly
violating safety norms, the airline staffers came to blows in the cockpit and
galley of the Indian Airlines Airbus A-320 as the aircraft cruised over Pakistan
en route to Delhi via Lucknow from Sharjah.
The cabin-vs-cockpit tiff
originated on the ground in Sharjah itself and then turned into a full-blown
fight once IC 884 took off soon after midnight.
The cabin crew
alleged that pilots harassed a 24-year-old female colleague who later filed a
molestation complaint against them with the cops after the flight landed in
Delhi.
The pilots, on the other hand, accused a male flight purser
of misconduct that seriously compromised flight safety, and said the accusation
of molestation aimed to protect the complainant's purser friend—who has a
commercial pilot licence (CPL)—from facing action.
No party
denied that blows and abuses were exchanged as bewildered passengers looked on.
Sources said that the female cabin crew member and the co-pilot sustained
bruises.
Confirming the in-flight fight, Air India said it had
ordered an inquiry and had grounded the staff members involved. The Directorate
General of Civil Aviation has also ordered a probe.
There were
unconfirmed reports that at one stage the cockpit was unmanned, as the crew was
busy fighting outside. Things allegedly degenerated to the point where the
captain threatened to divert the plane to Karachi, likening the situation,
sources said, to a "hijack".
In Sharjah, the cabin crew went to meet
Captain Ranbir Arora and co-pilot Aditya Chopra for the pre-flight briefing.
Both sides give different versions of what happened after this.
The
cabin crew lobby said that after the initial tension on the ground in Sharjah,
when the woman crew member went into the cockpit, one of the pilots held her
hand and then pushed her out of the cockpit.
"She hit the cockpit
door with such force that she started bleeding. When Amit Khanna, the purser,
saw her in this condition, he went to the cockpit to ask what was happening. At
this point, the pilots got abusive and started a fight with him," said a
representative of the IA cabin crew, who added that the actual fight took place
on the Lucknow-Delhi segment.
Pilot sources claimed that despite his
CPL, Khanna could not get a pilot's job due to the downturn.
"The
airhostess had announced flying time from Sharjah to Lucknow as per the
schedule, and not the actual one that the commander gives. After taking off, the
pilot scolded the airhostess and then called Amit to the cockpit," said a
source.
Khanna, the source added, entered the cockpit angrily and
that's when the fight started. "He became abusive, and tempers ran high in the
cockpit. Given the highly unsafe situation there, the commander said he would
divert to Karachi, to which Amit retorted, 'Jahan le jaana hai, le jaao, is
aircraft ko main bhi uda loonga (take it wherever you want to, I can also
fly)'," a pilot representative said, adding that the fight occurred over
Pakistan, while the plan was flying from Sharjah to Lucknow. The woman crew
member, the source explained, got bruised when she entered the cockpit in the
melee.
The cockpit was cleared, with pilots pushing out Amit and then
locking the door. After that, the plane landed in Lucknow at around 4.30 am.
"Amit then apologized to the pilots, and they took off for Delhi so that the
flight wasn't delayed. He later got the woman crew member to level charges of
molestation to avoid action for making a hostile entry into the cockpit," said a
source speaking on behalf of the pilots.
The police are investigating
the woman's complaint and have registered a case against the pilot and co-pilot.
"There are several eyewitnesses and we are recording their statements," said
joint CP (operations) Satyendra Garg. The police had the victim examined at
Safdarjung Hospital, where her bruises were confirmed. A case was registered,
among others, under Section 354 for outraging the modesty of a
woman.
The DGCA is fuming at the gross violation of safety norms on
IC 884. "The airline didn't even inform us of this incident in time. We're going
to summon the crew members on Monday. This incident is shocking and we may need
to take exemplary action," said a senior official.
It’s stupid things like this that make me stay away from Air India. I flew with them once, back in 1993. One of the worst flight experiences I had and I’ve never gone back.