Un ruly Passengers on Indian Flights

[Wannabe Flyer]

Man accused of molesting Jet airhostess, lands in custody (http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Man-accused-of-molesting-Jet-airhostess--lands-in-custody/565857)


This seems to have become a common occurrence in Indian skies. I believe the count is upto almost 5 in the past 10 days.

My query to any Indian flight crew is as follows:

Similar situations in the UK as well as the US are treated as a terror threat and causes Immediate diversion of the aircraft so as to offload the problem maker.

In all the above scenarios in India it seemed Cc as well as flight crew first try and control the situation (talk reason with unruly passenger) and most times carry onto destination where the person is reported.

Is there any reason why Indian flight crews do not divert and try to play peacemaker themselves viz a vis their counterparts in other countries? :confused:

[av8r76]

Lack of training for one. Lack of capable and competent staff is another.... both byproducts of cost cutting I'm afraid.

The laws are toothless... very little guidance and support from management.

With tight bottomlines, crews have to think very hard before diverting and then have to face the repercussions of the financial loss incurred after the incident(s).

And believe me if all such incidents escalated into diversions, then we won't have many airlines flying around for long.

The mindset of the average travelling public is that these ladies are easy targets and will take the cr*p doled out to them cos they paid handsomely for the right to be in that tube.

The reported amount of abuse and harassment these guys and gals face is just the tip of the iceberg. Despite a zero tolerance policy in my airline a lotta pax get away with transgressions because it is just not worth the effort.

This, unfortunately, leads to more daring actions which cross all limits of decency. If only we made the collective effort to nip this in the bud, these incidents would be few and far between.

[IndAir967]

Mostly crew prefer to remain silent in most of the minor incidents thus avoiding unnecessary media attention which might actually back fire at them ..

Imagine a passenger coughing in a flight making news in the prime time with a pax saying "Oxisen waaaas MATHLAB staapedd in da meedle etsalf"
and media reporting it as though the airline has completely stopped using pressurisation systems on all its aircraft and inturn caused suffocation to the passenger and he coughed !

Sorry to have deviated from the original topic.. but media hype is one reason why crew nowadays cant report anything...

[Wannabe Flyer]

Very sad situation, but obviously very true. Media in India for the most part is very immature and does not do sufficient due diligence before put on sensational "breaking news" It has reached a stage of the sheep crying wolf.

That said, as an SLF I would not hesitate kicking the ass or creating a stink and embarrassing the offending passengers. These kind of people tend to be cowards and tables can be turned on them rapidly.

As a crew if the management is not supporting you that is sad. Maybe if at every small incident aircraft started diverting or declaring an emergency after a period of time they would listen. After all the way to a companies heart is thru their pocket.