Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran breaks silence on Air India urination incident

Admitting shortcomings in the response of Air India, airline parent Tata Group’s chief on Sunday issued his first statement on the urination incident that has become national headlines. Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran said that the airline’s response should have been “much swifter”.

The statement comes days after DGCA intervened and pulled up the Tata Group-owned airline over a drunk male passenger allegedly urinating on an elderly female co-passenger during an international flight from New York to Delhi on November 26, 2022. Giving his verdict on how Air India managed the situation, Chandrasekaran admitted that “we fell short of addressing this situation the way we should have.”

As the matter came to light nearly a month later, a massive uproar ensued. Delhi Police registered a case and arrested the accused passenger Shankar Mishra on Saturday from Bengaluru. 

“The incident on Air India flight AI102 on November 26, 2022, has been a matter of personal anguish to me and my colleagues at Air India. Air India's response should have been much swifter. We fell short of addressing this situation the way it should have been,” Tata Group chief said in a statement on Sunday.

“The Tata Group and Air India stand by the safety and well-being of our passengers and crew with full conviction. We will review and repair every process to prevent or address any incidents of such unruly nature,” Chandrasekaran added.

Earlier, DGCA had issued show cause notice to Air India saying that the airline’s conduct in handling the issue was “unprofessional”. Show cause notices were also issued by the aviation regulator to the director of Air India in-flight services and the crew that had operated the flight on which the incident took place.

An apology was also issued by Air India’s CEO Campbell Wilson on Saturday. The airline de-rostered a pilot and four cabin crew members. It also said that it was reviewing its “policy on service of alcohol in flight”.

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(With inputs from PTI)