DGCA fines Air India Rs 10 lakh for not reporting incidents of passenger misbehaviour

NEW DELHI: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has slapped an additional penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Air India for not reporting an incident, that happened on a Paris flight, and delaying in referring the matter to its internal committee which is a violation of application DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements.

"This refers to two incidents that happened on an Air India on December 6th, 2022 on flight AI 142 from Paris to New Delhi.  DGCA learnt that one passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory, he was also drunk and not adhering to crew instructions and on the same flight another passenger relieved himself on a vacant seat and blanket of a fellow female passenger,’’ according to the DGCA.

The DGCA had issued a show cause notice to the accountable manager and asked why enforcement action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations.

Air India had submitted a reply to the show cause notice on January 23rd and the same was examined, following which the DGCA as an enforcement action imposed a penalty of Rs 10 lakh on Air India.

This is the second time in less than one week that the DGCA has imposed a penalty on Air India.  In an episode regarding not being able to handle an unruly passenger on board a New York-Delhi flight, the DGCA had imposed two penalties which totalled Rs 33 lakh .