India to get 'no fly list' to deal with unruly flyers soon
NEW DELHI: Misbehaving on a plane or doing anything that endangers flight safety and fellow passengers could soon mean getting debarred from taking to the skies again for some time.
Aviation minister Jayant Sinha is finalising India’s own “no fly list” that will grade unruly acts committed by flyers and accordingly bar them from flying for a period ranging from a few months to a few years.
People who wish to fly on domestic routes now need to provide identity proof such as Aadhaar number, PAN card, passport or driving licence number at the time of booking tickets
For international tickets, passport numbers and visa details have to be furnished.
“We will make providing some government I-card at booking or linking a PNR to an identity proof mandatory and this will enable us to track travellers. Once this is done, we will have an Indian version of the no-fly list — a dynamic list where people found to have acted unruly, disruptive or dangerous fashion on flights will keep added. If such a person books a ticket, it will automatically alert agencies that such a person will try to fly and be stopped from doing so,” said a source.
In the US if a person is on the no-fly list and books a ticket, an alert is automatically sounded. The concept of no fly list has emanated from America where the federal government terrorist screening centre maintains a list of people who are barred from boarding commercial flights into and out of America and even over its airspace.
At present in India, all passengers need to show an identity card issued by a government agency and ticket to enter airports in India. However, for domestic check-in, airlines do not always ask for an I-card at the time of issuing boarding cards. They do so only in suspicious cases.
Jayant Sinha is learnt to be working on a major digital traveller initiative which will have digital record of everyone in the aviation ecosystem.
“Identification of travellers will also done by this initiative. We are working out the modalities of what type of dangerous behaviour should have what period of not being allowed to fly. It depends on how we view various violations, based on which there will be higher or lower consequences,” said a source.
In recent months, there have been several cases of unruly flyers threatening safety of their co-passengers. The most recent case was on February 4 when an unruly flyer on a Delhi-Mumbai flight claimed that he had the plane in his control and that he would crash the same. It took some off duty pilots and well-built passengers to pin down the young man. He was sedated and handed over to security agencies in Mumbai.
Aviation minister Jayant Sinha is finalising India’s own “no fly list” that will grade unruly acts committed by flyers and accordingly bar them from flying for a period ranging from a few months to a few years.
People who wish to fly on domestic routes now need to provide identity proof such as Aadhaar number, PAN card, passport or driving licence number at the time of booking tickets
For international tickets, passport numbers and visa details have to be furnished.
“We will make providing some government I-card at booking or linking a PNR to an identity proof mandatory and this will enable us to track travellers. Once this is done, we will have an Indian version of the no-fly list — a dynamic list where people found to have acted unruly, disruptive or dangerous fashion on flights will keep added. If such a person books a ticket, it will automatically alert agencies that such a person will try to fly and be stopped from doing so,” said a source.
In the US if a person is on the no-fly list and books a ticket, an alert is automatically sounded. The concept of no fly list has emanated from America where the federal government terrorist screening centre maintains a list of people who are barred from boarding commercial flights into and out of America and even over its airspace.
At present in India, all passengers need to show an identity card issued by a government agency and ticket to enter airports in India. However, for domestic check-in, airlines do not always ask for an I-card at the time of issuing boarding cards. They do so only in suspicious cases.
Jayant Sinha is learnt to be working on a major digital traveller initiative which will have digital record of everyone in the aviation ecosystem.
“Identification of travellers will also done by this initiative. We are working out the modalities of what type of dangerous behaviour should have what period of not being allowed to fly. It depends on how we view various violations, based on which there will be higher or lower consequences,” said a source.
In recent months, there have been several cases of unruly flyers threatening safety of their co-passengers. The most recent case was on February 4 when an unruly flyer on a Delhi-Mumbai flight claimed that he had the plane in his control and that he would crash the same. It took some off duty pilots and well-built passengers to pin down the young man. He was sedated and handed over to security agencies in Mumbai.
