In November last year, a man allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger on board an Air India international flight from New York to Delhi.
The incident sparked outrage, with the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) issuing a show cause notice to Air India over the airline’s “lackadaisical response” to the incident. India Today has now learned that the Air India crew of the New York-Delhi flight had written to their seniors about the urination incident hours after their flight landed in Delhi.
In the email, the crew member said, “During the course of the flight, a lady guest travelling in business class claimed that a male passenger came upto her seat and urinated on her while she was sleeping.”
The staff claimed that the crew members were quick to take action and helped the lady change her clothes as well as assured her of all the help.
“Crew also cleaned the area, her belongings and sanitized her shoes. The belonging of guest seated on adjacent seats were also cleaned. She claimed she was well connected and wanted to file a police complaint. We categorically informed her that Air India takes such incidents very seriously, appropriate process and procedures are in place to ensure handling such incidents in an efficient way,” the email read.
It added that the woman passenger was assured all possible help in the matter, adding that the crew informed the woman that “if she desires, Air India commercial staff and security staff will meet her on arrival to help and offer assistance and guidance in filing the police complaint.”
The crew stated that the accused man, who was “a young adult in his early thirties”, was confronted by them and was made aware of the accusations levelled against him by the woman flyer.
“He appeared shaken and denied he would ever do anything like this. He appeared decent and was polite and humble and claimed to be working for a multinational company. He kept on saying that although he does not remember anything, he was willing to offer an unconditional apology and compensation in any form to the lady,” the Air India crew said.
The email claimed that the woman had, in the meantime, started to demand compensation from Air India.
When the woman was informed that the man wanted to offer an apology and wanted to offer compensation, she willingly agreed to meet him, the crew alleged.