New Delhi: An inebriated man urinated on an elderly female co-passenger on board an Air India flight AI-102 from New York to Delhi on Nov 26, 2022. The incident surfaced belatedly after the aggrieved woman shot off a letter to Tata Group Chairman K. Chandrasekaran and complained that the flight crew did not make necessary effort to relieve her of the trauma.
Responding to the incident, the Air India constituted an internal committee and recommended to put the male passenger on 'no-fly list'. The matter is before the government committee and a decision is awaited, an Air India official said.
The woman, in her seventies, wrote to Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran and complained against the flight crew for not coming to her rescue. The incident has been confirmed by Air India officials to ANI on Wednesday.
In her strongly-worded letter to Tata Group Chairman, the woman said, "The crew was not proactive in managing a very sensitive and traumatic situation, and I had to advocate for myself throughout, waiting for long periods of time to get a response. I am ...distressed that the airline made no attempt to ensure my safety or comfort during this incident."
The woman further said, "Shortly after lunch was served and the lights were switched off, ...another passenger walked to my seat, completely inebriated. He unzipped his pants, relieved himself, and continued to expose me to his private parts."
"After urinating, the man continued to stand there, exposing himself, and moved only after one of co-passengers asked him to leave", the woman complained. "My clothes, shoes and bag were completely soaked in urine. The stewardess followed me to the seat, verified that it smelled of urine, and sprayed disinfectant on my bag and shoes...," the woman narrated her agony.
As the woman and her seat were reeking of urine, the crew gave her a set of pyjamas. "She stood by the toilet for about 20 minutes as she did not want to return to her soiled seat. She was given the narrow crew seat, where she sat for an hour and was then told to return to her seat," as per a report.
The woman alleged that though there are several vacant seats in the first class, the Air India staff initially asked her to go to her original seat which was "reeking of urine". She was given another seat two hours later, where she sat for the remainder of the flight.
"Clearly the crew did not feel that taking care of a distressed passenger was a priority. At the end of the flight, the staff told me they would get me a wheelchair to ensure that I clear customs as early as possible. However, the wheelchair deposited me at a waiting area, where I waited for 30 minutes, and nobody came to get me. I finally had to clear customs on my own and collect the luggage by myself — all in Air India pyjamas and socks," she said.
Meanwhile, Air India has reported the incident to police and regulatory authorities. "We have been in regular contact with the aggrieved passenger," the airline said in a statement.
