My clothes, shoes, and bag soaked in urine: Passenger describes ordeal with Air India

Days after the Delhi police booked Mumbai-based businessman Shekhar Mishra for urinating on a female co-passenger while onboard a Delhi-bound AirIndia flight from New York, the aggrieved senior citizen woman has submitted a complaint to the Ministry of Civil Aviation through AirSewa, describing her ordeal and the response of the airlines. On November 26, 2022, while on Air India Business Class Flight AI102, Shekhar Mishra, who was seated in the row ahead of her, walked towards her in a completely inebriated state and urinated on her, soiling her clothes, shoes, and bag containing documents including her passport. 

The complainant alleged that the cabin crew were not sensitive towards her and declined her request to be given another seat in first class, despite there being vacant seats. In addition, her insistence on having the offender arrested upon landing and not wanting to speak to him were unheeded, and she was forced to listen to him, seated opposite each other in the crew seats. “In my already distraught state, I was further disoriented by being made to confront and negotiate with the perpetrator of the horrific incident in close quarters,” she wrote. 

She further accused the airline staff of “deeply unprofessional” handling of the incident, including not showing good judgement in how much alcohol to serve a passenger and not proactively managing a traumatic situation. She was also not given the assistance promised by the ground staff upon landing. 

The full text of her complaint reads thus: “I would like to submit a complaint about my appalling experience travelling with Air India Business Class Flight AI102 Seat 9A, from JFK to New Delhi on November 26, 2022.During the course of the flight, shortly after lunch was served and the lights were switched off, a male business class passenger seated in 8A walked to my seat, completely inebriated.He unzipped his pants and urinated on me and kept standing there until the person sitting next to me tapped him and told him to go back lo his seat, at which point he staggered back to his seat. I immediately got up to notify the stewardess of what had happened. My clothes, shoes, and bag were soaked in urine. The bag contained my passport, travel documents, and currency. The flight staff refused to touch them, sprayed my bag and shoes with disinfectant, and took  me to the bathroom and gave me a set of airline pyjamas and socks. I asked the staff for a change of seat, but was told  that no other seats were available. However, another business class passenger who had witnessed my plight and was advocating for me pointed out that there were seats available in first class. The night crew told me that the pilot had vetoed giving me a seat in first class. After I had been standing for 20 minutes, one of the senior flight staff offered me the small crew seat used by the airline staff where I sat for about two hours. I was then asked to return to the initial soiled seat. Although the staff had spread sheets on the seal, the area was still damp and reeking of urine and I refused to sit there. I was then given the steward seat for the rest of the journey. In the meantime one of the senior flight staff came to me and asked me how I wanted to handle the situation. I told them that I wanted the man arrested  immediately by the airport police. They asked me if I would like to talk to the ground staff and I told them that I most certainly would.

“The flight staff were in the meantime also having discussions with the offender, who was sobering up by this time, and they came and told me that he wanted to apologise to me. I stated clearly that I did not want to interact with him or see his face, and that all I wanted was for him to be arrested on arrival. However, the crew brought  the offender before me against my wishes, and we were made to sit opposite each other in the crew seats. I was stunned when he started crying and profusely apologising to me, begging me not to lodge a complaint against him because he is a family man and did not want his wife and child to be affected by this incident. In my already distraught state, I was further disoriented by being made to confront and negotiate with the perpetrator of the horrific incident in close quarters. I told him that his actions were inexcusable, but in the face of his pleading and begging in front of me, and my own shock and trauma, I found it difficult to insist on his arrest or to press charges against him.

“I demanded from the airline staff that Air India reimburse me for my shoes and clothes but they said they had nothing to do with this and the man in question should pay me for that and dry clean my shoes and clothes. They  got my phone number which they later passed on to the offender for payment for my shoes and dry cleaning (I subsequently returned the payment  as I did not want to take his money).

“The Air India flight staff assured me that I would be taken on a wheel chair to the baggage carousel and seen through a comfortable exit from the airport. On landing, I was put on a wheelchair and taken to the terminal and unloaded there to wait for the next wheelchair. The ground staff never came to assist me and take down my complaint. I wailed for 30 minutes. I was so exhausted and shaken that I simply got up and walked to the immigration and collected my baggage. I met the flight staff again near the exit as I was taking my luggage on a trolley. When I told the flight staff that no one had assisted me on the ground, they called for a wheelchair to wheel me to the entrance, which was barely a few feet away by this time.

“Not only was the Air India crew deeply unprofessional, there are also a number of failures worth pointing out. First, the crew did not show good judgement about how much alcohol to serve a passenger. Second, the crew was not proactive in managing a very sensitive and traumatic situation and I had to advocate for myself throughout, waiting for long periods of time to get a response. My son-in-law sent a complaint to Air India on November 27, and they agreed to reimburse the ticket — to date, they have issued only a partial refund. However, this is hardly sufficient compensation for my traumatic experience. I also personally emailed a complaint directly to Air India on November 27, fully expecting them to call me for further investigation of the situation in order to take proper action and initiate appropriate grievance settlement. However, they have not yet.”