With media making misbehaviour cases of airline staffs with passengers as neta v/s daily wagers or celebrity v/s middle class or rich v/s poor and many a times, the airlines management fully backing the unruly staffs, the morale of airline staffs especially of Air India and IndiGo to go over-board and misbehave with the passengers seem to be high. Days after India’s ace shuttler P V Sindhu narrated her harrowing experience with IndiGo ground staff, comes the new video in which a passenger in his early 50’s is being hit and pin down by two IndiGo ground staffs at Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi.
The video which went viral on social media and WhatsApp shows a passenger arguing with two IndiGo ground staffers before boarding a shuttle bus. However, the IndiGo employee accused the man of using abusive words and do not allow him to board the bus and dragged him away. The passenger’s tried to break free, but the employees hit him and pin him to the ground.
With no option left but to apologise due to availability of video, the IndiGo was force to apologise. Aditya Ghosh, President and Director of IndiGo, offered his apologies to the affected passenger and claimed that they had immediately suspended the involved employees. “At IndiGo, dignity of our passengers and staff is of utmost importance. Any act that compromises the dignity of either is of a serious concern to us. I personally spoke to the customer and apologised to him the very same day. Whatever may have been the provocation, our staff were completely out of line and didn’t follow laid down procedures,” he said.
Taking cognizance of the unruly behaviour of the IndiGo staff, Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapati Raju had also sought a report from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). “Have sought a report from DGCA. Violence of any sort is deplorable and should result in criminal action, “said Raju. However, Delhi police said no complaint had been lodged by the passenger, reported Indian Express.
Bulling Passenger by AIR INDIGO @moca_goi @Ashok_Gajapathi @IndiGo6E @airindigo @smart_mumbaikar @PMOIndia @ANI @dna @ndtv @ANILGALGALIRTI pic.twitter.com/a4S3LJhtV0
— GM MTDC (@GM_MTDC) November 7, 2017
This is the second time in a week that the low-cost carrier IndiGo was in the line of fire for manhandling passenger. On Saturday, ace shuttler PV Sindhu took to Twitter and accused an IndiGo ground staff of behaving rudely with her.
On Saturday, Sindhu detailed her harrowing experience in a Twitter post. “Sorry to say ..i had a very bad experience😤when i was flying by 6E 608 flight to bombay on 4th nov the ground staff by name Mr ajeetesh,” she wrote and added, “Ground staff (skipper) Mr Ajeetesh behaved very badly and rudely with me. When the air hostess Ms Ashima tried to advise him to behave properly with the passenger (me) but to my surprise he behaved rudely with her.” “If this type of people work for a reputed airline like Indigo they will spoil their reputation,” she said.
However, Indigo refuted Sindhu’s claims and stated that she had boarded the flight carrying an oversized luggage that was not fitting into the overhead bin. Accordingly, she was informed that it would be moved to the cargo hold of the aircraft (as per policy followed for all customers). Indigo also rejected claims of misbehaviour by the member of ground operations and went on to say that he remained calm and after several requests finally consented to remove the bag.
Times Now reported that IndiGo Airlines may have tried to ‘bury’ the video. Montu Kalra, the airline employee who shot the video and turned a whistle-blower in the case, has claimed that he was in fact sacked from his job for shooting the video, while the employees who heckled the passenger, were still working with the airlines. Kalra told the TV channel that the employees involved in the physical assault had only be given a warning letter and had been reinstated to their jobs.
The incident is said to have taken place after IndiGo Airlines flight 6E 487 landed at the Delhi airport on October 15.
