The Maharaja witnessed his first in-flight Mughal-e-Azam at 30,000 feet above sea level on Saturday, as two members of the cabin crew — one male and one female — slugged it out with the pilot and co-pilot.
Endangering the lives of 106 passengers and grossly violating safety norms, the airline staffers came to blows in the cockpit and galley of the Indian Airlines Airbus A-320 as the aircraft cruised over Pakistan en route to Delhi via Lucknow from Sharjah.
The cabin-vs-cockpit tiff originated on the ground in Sharjah itself and then turned into a full-blown fight once IC 884 took off soon after midnight.
The cabin crew alleged that pilots harassed a 24-year-old female colleague who later filed a molestation complaint against them with the cops after the flight landed in Delhi.
The pilots, on the other hand, accused a male flight purser of misconduct that seriously compromised flight safety, and said the accusation of molestation aimed to protect the complainant’s purser friend—who has a commercial pilot licence (CPL)—from facing action.
There were unconfirmed reports that at one stage the cockpit was unmanned, as the crew was busy fighting outside. Things allegedly degenerated to the point where the captain threatened to divert the plane to Karachi, likening the situation, sources said, to a “hijack”.
In Sharjah, the cabin crew went to meet Captain Ranbir Arora and co-pilot Aditya Chopra for the pre-flight briefing. Both sides give different versions of what happened after this.
The cabin crew lobby said that after the initial tension on the ground in Sharjah, when the woman crew member went into the cockpit, one of the pilots held her hand and then pushed her out of the cockpit.
“She hit the cockpit door with such force that she started bleeding. When Amit Khanna, the purser, saw her in this condition, he went to the cockpit to ask what was happening. At this point, the pilots got abusive and started a fight with him,” said a representative of the IA cabin crew, who added that the actual fight took place on the Lucknow-Delhi segment.
Source: Times of India
By: KabirT - 5th October 2009 at 18:15
At the very least they should be suspended for such unprofessional behavior.
in an ideal world…yes.
By: PMN - 5th October 2009 at 14:39
I must say though, that is the most pathetic photograph I have ever seen accompanying a news article!
I have to agree. It looks like Spalding has been submitting images to the BBC again.
Paul
By: KabirT - 5th October 2009 at 06:15
A council has been set up to look into the incident. If this was AI which had not just come out of a bitter battle between the Unions and the management topped with the airline bleeding money, they would have been fired within a day.
Michael: that may well be the most random image I have seen on an article. 😮
By: T5 - 5th October 2009 at 01:22
Currently the most read article on BBC News. I must say though, that is the most pathetic photograph I have ever seen accompanying a news article!
By: steve rowell - 5th October 2009 at 00:12
Very unprofessional …and i dare say very frightening for the passengers who witnessed the event.
By: Bmused55 - 4th October 2009 at 11:43
I completely agree.
They all have blame if neither of them had the common sense to let the issue lie untill they were on the ground, shut down and deboarded.
By: T5 - 4th October 2009 at 04:09
Regardless of what went on up there, they are all to blame in one way or another. If a problem like this arises, maybe it is best left until the aircraft has landed! The safety of every person on board has been jeopardised as a result of an argument and/or a fight, which has apparently led to the flight deck being unmanned at some stage during the flight.
Perhaps it would just be easier for Air India to get rid of everybody involved if a true version of events cannot be established!
Sign In
October 4, 2009 at 3:17 am