Air India CEO apologises for urinating incidence; reviews alcohol policy

Tata Groupowned Air India CEO Campbell Wilson on Saturday apologised for a flyer urinating on a fellow female passenger on a flight from New York in November and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been derostered and the airline is reviewing policy of serving alcohol on flightsFacing backlash for the handling of the incident Wilson in a statement said the airline could have handled the issue better and promised a robust reporting system of unruly behaviour and a system of reporting such incidentsAir India is deeply concerned about the inflight instances where customers have suffered due to the condemnable acts of their copassengers on our aircraft We regret and are pained about these experiences he saidAir India acknowledges that it could have handled these matters better both in the air and on the ground and is committed to taking actionWith questions being raised about the airline not immediately reporting the unruly passenger to law enforcement authorities he advised staff to report all incidents irrespective of a settlement being reachedAlso read Air India peeing incident Delhi Police arrests accused from BengaluruIn the instance of the incident onboard AI102 operating between New York and Delhi on November 26 2022 four cabin crew and one pilot have been issued show cause notices and derostered pending investigation he said adding internal investigations into whether there were lapses by other staff are ongoingThe airline is investigating aspects including the service of alcohol on flight incident handling complaint registration on board and grievance handlingAs a responsible airline brand Air India has commenced a comprehensive education programme to strengthen crews awareness of and compliance with policies on the handling of incidents and unruly passengers with a view to materially strengthen and improve how such incidents would be addressed in futureThe airline is reviewing policy on service of alcohol in flight he said without elaboratingAlso it is reviewing the meeting frequency of the DGCAprescribed Internal Committee tasked with assessing incidents so that cases are assessed and decisions reached in a more timely mannerTo improve the robustness of its legacy incident reporting processes which are presently paperbased and manual Air India signed a Letter of Intent in December 2022 to acquire a license for the marketleading provider of incident management software Coruson he saidIn addition to this stateoftheart software the airline is also in the process of deploying iPads to Pilots and Senior Cabin Crew When used together crew will be able to enter voyage and incident reports electronically which will then be rapidly and automatically routed to relevant parties including as required the RegulatorAir India he said also continues to provide support to the affected passengers and ensure their wellbeingThe Directorate General of Civil Aviation DGCA on Thursday stated that Air India at first glance appeared to have not complied with provisions related to the handling of an unruly passenger onboardThe DGCA notices came after the airline told the regulator that its staff had not complained about the Mumbai businessman who allegedly urinated on a female passenger on a New YorkDelhi flight AI 102 flight of November 26 2022 to law enforcement as the aggrieved lady had rescinded an initial request for action after the two appeared to have sorted out the issueIt stated that the offender was banned from flying on Air India for 30 days pending a report of its Internal CommitteeWhile the Palam Police Station in Delhi has registered a case the aggrieved passenger has been refunded the flight fareOn Saturday the CEO said upon receipt of the complaint on November 27 Air India acknowledged receipt and commenced engaging in correspondence with the affected passengers family on November 30 commenced a refund of the ticket on December 2 with receipt of funds acknowledged by the victims family on December 16 and initiated the DGCAprescribed Internal Committee tasked with assessing incidents and which comprises a retired judge a representative from a passengers association and a representative from another Indian commercial airline on December 10The file was passed to the Committee on December 20 and a 30day interim travel ban imposed on the same dateAlso Air India convened four meetings between senior Airline staff the victim and her family on December 20 21 26 and 30 to discuss actions being taken and the progress thereofWhen the victims family requested that Air India lodge a police report during the meeting on December 26 it did so on December 28 2022 he saidAir India and its staff will continue to provide full cooperation to the affected passenger and regulators and law enforcement authorities as they investigate thesecases We are committed to providing a safe environment for customers and crew as well as operating in full compliance with all laws and regulations