4 incidents of assault, threats to Air India crew in 6 weeks; CEO seeks global support to curb menace

Expressing his concern at the rising incidents of unruly behaviour by passengers on flights, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has urged concerted industry effort to contain the problem.

“It is unfortunate that the [passenger] behaviour is not always what one would expect in a public environment. As an industry, we need to step forward and say there’s what is acceptable and what’s not acceptable,” Wilson told Business Today. 

The chief executive of the country’s national flag carrier made this observation while responding to a question on the incident on a New York-Delhi flight where a business class passenger had allegedly urinated on a co-passenger on November 26 last year. The matter is currently sub judice.

Expressing deep regret at the incident, Wilson admitted they had failed to handle the situation adequately around that time. 

“As a consequence of that incident, we’ve looked at internal processes. We’ve looked at the technology that we will be using in reporting such incidents internally as well as to the regulator. We’ve looked at some policies because clearly, we need to do better,” he said.

The airline has since set up new processes to monitor as well as deal with the problem of unruly passenger behaviour. It recently selected the UK-based Ideagen’s enterprise cloud software application, Coruson, to further enhance end-to-end safety management, including real-time intelligence, reporting and status of inflight incidents. 

The safety data software application, which will be online with effect from May 1, will ensure automated processes relay critical information to key personnel and authorities without delay, leading to timely action. The airline is separately engaged in procuring iPads for pilots and crew members and when introduced, Coruson will be available on these devices as well.

“In the last six weeks alone, we’ve had four incidents where people have either assaulted or threatened to physically assault our crew, and we’re taking a zero-tolerance line on that. And in each case, they have been referred to an internal committee for suspension,” informed Wilson.

He said that a spurt in such cases globally had led even the trade association International Air Transport Association (IATA) to take a serious view of the situation and call for industrywide action to stem it.   

In 2022, 4,242 such incidents were reported by member airlines, which was significantly lesser than the 5,672 incidents reported in 2021, according to data shared by IATA with BT. However, there has been a sharp spike in these occurrences since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, when only 2,688 incidents were reported globally. This increase was initially driven largely by non-compliance with face mask requirements.

“While the health situation has improved and most mask requirements have gone, government awareness of the problem of unruly behavior on flights has increased,” observed IATA’s assistant director for external affairs Tim Colehan.

Colehan further said that IATA had been urging governments globally to implement public awareness campaigns to make passengers aware of the type of conduct prohibited onboard as well as the introduction of strong legal deterrents.

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