As Indian travellers increasingly take to the skies and domestic airlines spread their wings across borders, unruly passenger incidents no longer make for amusing anecdotes. They have become a serious issue.
While there is no official data for India, IATA says that 170 of its 252 member-airlines have reported ‘unruly incidents’ since 2007. Air India and Jet Airways are IATA members. The Association had received 8,000 reports of unruly passenger incidents in 2013.
Indian airlines have begun taking steps to control unruly passengers. Crew of the country’s largest airline IndiGo has started carrying nylon handcuffs to contain a trouble-maker.
The Directorate General for Civil Aviation is said to be finalising stricter norms, such as harsher punishment for the offender, to tackle the issue.
At present though, pilots and air hostesses are unclear about how to handle the problem.
“We often do not pursue the case and don’t press charges against the passenger,” says a pilot with an Indian airline who did not want to be named. “The legal procedure is cumbersome. Imagine if the crew is from Mumbai and the case is filed in Delhi. For every hearing the crew will have to travel,” he adds. IATA’s Steele agrees. “One of the main problems is that many unruly passengers rarely face prosecution because of gaps in international aviation law which undermine the deterrent effect,” he adds.
Taking cognisance of the problem, the industry has now come out with the Montreal Protocol 2014, which adds teeth to the previous regulation – Tokyo Convention – that addressed the problem. The Protocol extends the jurisdiction to prosecute offenders and has guidelines to monitor passengers for intoxication before they board a plane.
30/12/14 Prince Mathews Thomas/Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line
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While there is no official data for India, IATA says that 170 of its 252 member-airlines have reported ‘unruly incidents’ since 2007. Air India and Jet Airways are IATA members. The Association had received 8,000 reports of unruly passenger incidents in 2013.
Indian airlines have begun taking steps to control unruly passengers. Crew of the country’s largest airline IndiGo has started carrying nylon handcuffs to contain a trouble-maker.
The Directorate General for Civil Aviation is said to be finalising stricter norms, such as harsher punishment for the offender, to tackle the issue.
At present though, pilots and air hostesses are unclear about how to handle the problem.
“We often do not pursue the case and don’t press charges against the passenger,” says a pilot with an Indian airline who did not want to be named. “The legal procedure is cumbersome. Imagine if the crew is from Mumbai and the case is filed in Delhi. For every hearing the crew will have to travel,” he adds. IATA’s Steele agrees. “One of the main problems is that many unruly passengers rarely face prosecution because of gaps in international aviation law which undermine the deterrent effect,” he adds.
Taking cognisance of the problem, the industry has now come out with the Montreal Protocol 2014, which adds teeth to the previous regulation – Tokyo Convention – that addressed the problem. The Protocol extends the jurisdiction to prosecute offenders and has guidelines to monitor passengers for intoxication before they board a plane.
30/12/14 Prince Mathews Thomas/Ashwini Phadnis/Business Line
