On 14th January, Russian Indian actress Evgenia Belskaia shared a video on her Instagram stories of a passenger slapping a pilot at an Indigo who was announcing the flight delay. In her story, she wrote, “Today, my team was waiting for 13 hours on their flight, and one guy got fed up.”
A passenger punched an Indigo capt in the aircraft as he was making delay announcement. The guy ran up from the last row and punched the new Capt who replaced the previous crew who crossed FDTL. Unbelievable ! @DGCAIndia @MoCA_GoI pic.twitter.com/SkdlpWbaDd
— Capt_Ck (@Capt_Ck) January 14, 2024
X user Capt_Ck also shared a video grab of the story and pointed out that the announcement was being made by the new captain of the flight, who replaced the previous crew who crossed Flight Duty Time Limitations (FDTL). For the unaware, FDTL are regulations set by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to ensure that the crew, including the pilot, get enough rest to avoid fatigue-related safety issues. The team on any plane has to change after an 8-hour shift. As the flight was delayed for over 13 hours, the previous crew had to step down, and a new crew was managing the floor.
In the video, a passenger wearing a yellow hoodie ran from the aisle in the middle of the announcement that the pilot was making and slapped him. The agitated passenger said, “Either fly the plane or open the gates,” hinting that the passengers were made to sit in the plane for a long time. While a co-passenger apologised profusely for the behaviour of the person in the yellow hoodie, one of the air hostesses broke down and said, “You cannot do this”, repeatedly.
As per reports, the Delhi Airport saw multiple flights getting delayed by hours due to harsh weather conditions. A total of 10 flights were diverted, and 100 were delayed. Some of the flights were reportedly canceled as well.
After the video went viral on social media, several X users condemned the actions of the agitated passenger and said this was not how things should have been handled. An X user, Suraj Balakrishnan, said, “There are a lot of things wrong with how Indigo is conducting their business currently, but there is ZERO justification for physical assault on an employee by a passenger.” He also demanded that the passenger should be blacklisted for life for attacking the pilot.
There are a LOT of things wrong with how Indigo is conducting their business currently but there is ZERO justification for physical assault on an employee by a passenger.
— Suraj Balakrishnan (@SurajBala) January 14, 2024
This man should be blacklisted for life & a probe must be conducted.
This is unacceptable behaviour from… pic.twitter.com/lktObGn9y4
Following a delay on multiple flights, IndiGo issued a statement and said that the delays were because of the low visibility and dense fog conditions across northern states in India. The statement read, “This had a cascading effect on our operations throughout the day. Our staff kept passengers apprised of all delays and cancellations across airports and made every possible effort to facilitate the passengers. We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to our passengers.”
