India's aviation regulator Tuesday slapped a fine of Rs 10 lakh on Air India after it did not report two incidents of unruly passenger behaviour onboard a Paris-New Delhi flight in December last year.
The latest punitive action came within a week of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) imposing a Rs 30 lakh fine on the airline for violating civil aviation regulations in dealing with a Mumbai-based man allegedly urinated on an elderly woman on Air India's New York-New Delhi flight in November last year.
In a statement, the DGCA said two incidents of a drunk passenger caught smoking in the lavatory and not adhering to crew instructions as well as another passenger relieving himself on a vacant seat of a fellow female passenger when she went to the lavatory happened on the Paris-New Delhi flight on 6 December, 2022 but the airline did not report unruly behaviour to the DGCA.
The aviation regulator came to know about the incident only earlier this month.
According to the DGCA, enforcement action in the form of a penalty of Rs 10 lakh has been imposed on Air India for not reporting the incident to DGCA and delaying in referring the matter to its Internal Committee, which is a violation of applicable DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements.
The action came after the DGCA examined the response of the airline to a show cause notice issued to it.
On January 20, DGCA imposed a penalty of Rs 30 lakh on Air India as well as suspended the licence of the pilot-in-command. It had also slapped a fine of Rs three lakh on Air India's Director of in-flight services for the November 26, 2022 incident.
An FIR was registered on January 4 by Delhi Police in connection with the incident on New York-New Delhi flight and arrested Shankar Mishra, who is accused of urinating on the elderly woman