New Delhi: A co-passenger of the November 26 Air India flight in which a man urinated on a woman passenger, said that the air hostesses did not do enough to pacify the elderly woman when she asked for another seat. S Bhattacharjee, a US-based renowned Doctor of Audiology who was seated next to Shankar Mishra, went up to the senior stewardess for another seat for the woman passenger but to no avail.
"I went to the senior stewardess and asked them to give her another seat, she said that she cannot do that as they had to take permission from the Captain," he said. The only option was to move the woman to first class since the Business class was full. Mr. Bhattacharjee described that two junior air hostesses cleaned the woman up. They cleaned her seat but kept the blankets that were stinking on the seat itself.
"I would not have been this vocal. I waited but when his father said this did not happen, is what triggered me," Bhattacharjee told news agency PTI in an interview over the phone. "The dignity of a woman was played with. The Tatas name has been tarnished. It's not a happy story. But at the end of the day, it was a moral call for me, it was morality and I thought it was my moral obligation to stand and make a complaint and I did," he said.
Shankar Mishra, the man who urinated on the woman in an inebriated state had four drinks after lunch. Mr. Bhattacharjee informed the flight attendant to keep an eye on him. Mishra was arrested on Friday by the Delhi Police from Bengaluru. He has been sent to 14-day judicial custody on Saturday.
The Tata-owned airline came under severe criticism for its unprofessional handling of the incident. The Delhi Police had summoned the crew along with the pilot on Saturday. On Saturday the Air India crew came out with a statement apologizing for the episode. It has also grounded the crew for the time being and has promised to relook at the drinking guidelines for its passengers while on board.
