This is your pilot scuffling with crew

New Delhi: Air India’s international flight IC-884 was thousands of metres above Pakistan when, in the sleepy hours before dawn, a man strode into the cockpit and a scuffle broke out.
No, it wasn’t a Pakistani hijacker. It was a steward jousting with the co-pilot for allegedly being rude to an airhostess.
Some sources claimed the co-pilot of the Sharjah-Delhi-Lucknow flight, Capt Ranbir Singh, had made disparaging comments about the young woman, and that steward Amit Khanna, apparently close to her, had decided to beat an apology out of him.
An Air India media release acknowledged a “scuffle between a pilot and two cabin crew members”, adding that “both the pilots and the two cabin crew members involved” had been de-rostered.
Former Air India director R. Pathak said: “We have never had such things in the past. This is shameful for all of us.”
The mid-air fisticuffs, which began around 4.30am, continued for several minutes while the commander of the flight, Capt Aditya Chopra, tried to bring the duellers to their senses and manage the aircraft at the same time. Both young men reported minor injuries at the end of it all.
“A fight is a horror story in an aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers,” a source said.
Luckily for the Maharaja, IC-884 made it to Lucknow without further turbulence, after a brief halt in Delhi.
03/10/09 Jyanta Roy Chowdhury/The Telegraph

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India Domestic Oct 2009, NACIL Oct 2009, Safety Oct 2009