New Delhi: Passengers of a Patna-bound SpiceJet flight and airline staff were involved in heated arguments at Delhi airport on Friday morning after the flight was delayed by more than two hours. A passenger on board the Delhi-Patna flight (8721) told PTI that the scheduled departure was at 7.20 am from Terminal 3 of the airport here.
The flight finally departed at around 10.10 am. At first, the airline staff said the flight was getting delayed due to weather problems but later cited technical issues as the reason for the delay, the passenger said. Many passengers were agitated and were involved in heated arguments with the airline staff concerned at the airport over the delay in the flight departure, according to the passenger. A SpiceJet spokesperson said the flight was delayed due to an operational issue and has now departed.
In another similar incident on an Air India flight when a passenger was caught smoking the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Air India for not reporting incidents of unruly behaviour of passengers to the regulatory body and delaying in referring the matter to its Internal Committee. The aviation watchdog said the matter is a violation of applicable DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements.
In a statement issued by DGCA said that action was taken on the incident of passenger misbehaviour which occurred on an AI-142 flight dated December 6, 2022, from Paris to New Delhi, came to the notice of DGCA wherein one passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory, was drunk and not adhering to the crew instructions.
DGCA had also issued a show cause notice to the Accountable Manager of Air India as to why action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations. Air India submitted a reply to the show cause notice on January 23 and the same was examined. (with Agency inputs)
