Air India CEO tells employees to report untoward incidents to authorities at earliest

Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has said in a letter to his employees that timely action against those who don’t comply with aircraft rules is a must. He reiterated the importance of reporting untoward incidents to the authorities even if the crew believes that it has been settled. His cautionary statements come amid the incident of a drunk man peeing on a female passenger onboard a New York-Delhi flight. 

“We must also be clear on the standard of behaviour that is expected on our aircraft and take firm, decisive and timely action against those who do not comply,” he said in the letter. He began the letter by saying that the headlines have been dominated ‘regrettably’ by an incident that they are all well aware of. 

“The repulsion felt by the affected passenger is totally understandable and we share her distress,” said Wilson. “Whilst the story is more complicated than has been reported, there are clearly some lessons we can and must learn. Most importantly is that, if an incident on our aircraft involves improper behaviour of such magnitude, we must report it to authorities at the earliest opportunity, even if we genuinely believe that the matter has been settled between the parties involved. The same applies in the case of passengers deemed to meet the threshold of “Unruly”,” he said. 

He also said that relevant aspects of the safety and emergency procedures manual be immediately reiterated by the operating departments and reinforced in recurrent training. “I ask each of you to reflect on what you would do if faced with such situations. As in any other area, knowledge and preparation underpin confidence and outcome,” he said. 

Wilson’s letter comes after an Air India passenger wrote a letter to Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran to complain about the repulsive incident and how the cabin crew reacted to it. Hema Rajaraman, the woman passenger, also released a statement of her ordeal. 

In the two-page statement, she said that the man, who has now been identified as Shankar Mishra, walked to her seat, completely inebriated. “He unzipped his pants and urinated on me and kept standing there until the person sitting next to me tapped him and told him to go back to his seat, at which point he staggered back to his seat. I immediately got up to notify the stewardess of what had happened,” she said. 

She said that the staff sprayed disinfectant on her bag and shoes but refused to change her seat. The staff had spread sheets on the seat but it was still damp and smelt of urine. The passenger said that she sat on the airline staff seat for 2 hours. She said they also made her confront the male passenger without her consent. 

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Also read: 'Wanted arrest, but made to negotiate': Woman, who was peed upon, blasts Air India crew; full text of complaint