Video of a man smoking on plane goes viral; Govt says action taken

A video of a man smoking a cigarette on an aircraft has gone viral on social media, subsequently sparking a controversy revolving around the violation of airline norms and safety.

A video tweeted by Twitter user Sameer Dixit shows a person sitting inside what looks like a SpiceJet aircraft and lighting up a cigarette. The video ends with Kataria taking a puff and blowing out the smoke.

“A video viral in social media raises serious questions about the Aviation Safety. A person named Bobby Kataria is seen in video, sitting inside the flight and smoking cigarette. Aviation Minister @JM_Scindia updates that the Investigation into the matter is going on. @MoCA_GoI,” tweeted Dixit. (sic)

Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia replied to another tweet of the same video saying the investigation is underway, promising that such acts won’t be tolerated.

“Investigating it. There will be no tolerance towards such hazardous behaviour,” read Scindia’s tweet. (sic)

Aviation watchdog DGCA, while speaking to news agency ANI later clarified about the incident and said that the video in fact was old and that action was already taken.

“Balvinder Kataria had travelled from Dubai to New Delhi on Spice Jet flight. He landed in Delhi on 23/01/22. Video isn't available on his FB/Insta page. Action taken by aviation security earlier,” Bureau of Civil Aviation Security told ANI.

The man in focus, Bobby Kataria, a bodybuilder, is a resident of Haryana. This is not the first time he has found himself in the eye of the storm. He is supposedly a social media influencer. He was apparently popular on the short-video sharing platform Tik Tok. Once it was banned in India in 2020, he switched to Instagram to share his videos. He has over 6,30,000 followers on Instagram and if one scroll through the profile, they will get a closer idea about the kind of content he posts.
 

Also Read: Video of man smoking onboard aircraft old, passenger was put on no-flying list: SpiceJet

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