According to a document, after an intoxicated passenger urinated on a lady flyer in the business class of an Air India trip last year, the crew escorted him to her seat and forced her to face him while he begged not to be arrested. The woman was “stunned” when the culprit was brought before her and he “began weeping and profusely apologising”.
According to the FIR (First Information Report) submitted by Air India, Mumbai businessman Shankar Mishra asked the woman not to report him to the police, stating he was a family guy who did not want the event to damage his wife and child. On november 27, a day after the incident on the new york-delhi flight, the woman wrote to air india group chairman N. chandrasekharan. however, air india only filed a police report on january 4. the airline stated it didn’t go to the police as it thought both sides had “resolved the problem”.
Shankar mishra reportedly unbuttoned his shirt and urinated on the lady on november 26. he stood there, exposing himself, until another passenger motioned for him to return to his seat. shankar mishra, who has been dodging arrest, has received an airport alert.
The woman documented her “appalling experience” in a letter to air india that was included in the fir.
When she protested to the flight crew about her urine-soaked seat, clothing, bag, and shoes, she said they “refused to touch them,” sprayed her bag and shoes with disinfectant, and offered her a set of pyjamas and socks. When she sought for a seat change, she was informed there were none available, despite the fact that another passenger indicated there were.
“The flight crew informed me that the pilot had refused to give me a seat in first class,” she explained.
The lady further claims that even though she immediately ordered Shankar Mishra’s arrest upon landing, the crew informed her he wanted to apologise and brought him to her.
I made it plain that I didn’t want to engage with him or see his face, and that all I wanted was for him to be jailed as soon as he arrived. However, the perpetrator was brought before me against my will, and we were forced to sit opposite each other in the crew chairs. I was taken aback when he began weeping and apologising excessively to me, pleading with me not to file a complaint against him because he is a family guy who does not want his wife and child to be damaged by this occurrence. In my already confused state, being forced to confront and bargain with the perpetrator of the awful crime at close quarters added to my confusion. I informed him of his conduct.
“I informed him his acts were unforgivable, but in the face of his pleading and begging in front of me, as well as my own shock and anguish, I found it impossible to demand his arrest or pursue charges against him,” the lady wrote.
The airline also gave Shankar Mishra her phone information in order for him to pay for her shoes and drycleaning, which she refused because she did not want his money.
She said that her son-in-law filed a complaint with Air India on November 27, and that the airline agreed to repay the ticket. However, she added, she had got just a partial reimbursement that was “hardly sufficient recompense for my horrible experience”.
She claimed in her complaint that the Air India crew was “very unprofessional,” failed to safeguard passengers’ safety and dignity, lacked appropriate judgement in determining how much alcohol to give a passenger, and was not proactive in dealing with a delicate and distressing issue.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson has written to the crew urging them to report inappropriate behaviour on flights at the earliest “even if the situation appears to have been addressed”. “The impacted passenger’s aversion is quite natural, and we share her pain,” Mr Wilson said in an internal communication.
“He begged me… He said he’s a family man,” says an Air India flight attendant.
