Airlines not reporting unruly behaviour of passengers, says DGCA

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has said that airline operators either substantially delayed reporting to it incidents of passenger misconduct or unruly behaviour or not reported them at all.

Pointing to increasing number of cases where passengers’ rage or unruly behaviour posed a threat to the safety of the flight, other passengers and crew, the aviation regulator reiterated its earlier instructions that such incidents should be reported within 12 hours via email to the Chief of Flight Safety/Director Cabin Safety (In-flight services) and a detailed information be submitted to the DGCA within 24 hours of landing of the flight.

The DGCA said the norms are applicable to all scheduled and non-scheduled operators and other operators who carried cabin crew on board an aircraft. The aviation watchdog had in its earlier circulars reminded pilots, cabin crew and director of In-flight services of their responsibilities under the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) on dealing with unruly passengers.

The latest advisory comes against the backdrop of several instances of unruly behaviour of passengers under the influence of alcoholic beverages, scuffle among passengers after heated arguments, sexual harassment of women passengers on board and even incidents with a potential to compromise the safety of aircraft operations.

Going by the provisions of CAR, there are three categories of unruly behaviour: Level-1 refers to behaviour that is verbally unruly, and calls for debarment up to 3 months; Level-2 indicates physical unruliness and can lead to the passenger being debarred from flying for up to 6 months; and Level-3 relates to life-threatening behaviour where the debarment would be for at least two years.

Besides legal action against cognisable offences reported in flights by respective law-enforcing agencies, guidelines were issued in 2017, which stated that complaints of unruly behaviour would be examined by an internal committee. It would take a decision on the matter within 30 days and also specify the duration of ban on the unruly passenger. During the period of pendency of such inquiry, the concerned airline may impose a ban on the passenger. For every subsequent offence, the ban would be twice the period of previous ban.