The woman who complained about a drunk passenger urinating on her on an Air India flight in November had told.
The crew she did not want to see his face and was “stunned” when the offender was brought before her and “started crying and profusely apologising”. The woman also accused the crew of being “deeply unprofessional” and said they were not proactive in managing a “very sensitive and traumatic situation”.
On November 26, Mumbai businessman Shankar Mishra unzipped and urinated on the woman in the business class of Air India’s New York-Delhi flight.
The woman has detailed what she called her appalling experience in a complaint that is part of the FIR (First Information Report) against the accused.
The woman told the crew that her clothes, shoes and bag were soaked in urine. The flight staff refused to touch them, sprayed the bag and shoes with disinfectant, and took her to the bathroom and gave her a set of airline pyjamas and socks.
She asked for a different seat but was told that no other seats were available. Another passenger pointed out that seats were available. Finally, she was told that the pilot had vetoed it.
The woman was offered a small seat used by airline staff where she sat for about two hours. She was then asked to return to her own seat. When she refused, she was given the steward’s seat for the rest of the journey.
The flight staff informed the victim that the offender wanted to apologise to her. She said she did not wish to interact with him or see his face and wanted him to be arrested on arrival.
But the crew brought him to the woman against her wishes “and we were made to sit opposite each other in the crew seats”, she said. “I was stunned when he started crying and profusely apologising to me, begging me not to lodge a complaint against him because he is a family man and did not want his wife and child to be affected by this incident. In my already distraught state, I was further disoriented by being made to confront and negotiate with the perpetrator of the horrific incident in close quarters,” the FIR stated.
The woman said her son-in-law sent a complaint to Air India on November 27 and the airline had agreed to reimburse the ticket. However, she only got a partial refund that, she said, was “hardly sufficient compensation for my traumatic experience”.