Air India probing drunk passenger incident
New Delhi, Sep 2 : National carrier Air India has commenced an internal probe on the incident of an inebriated passenger on a New York-Delhi flight urinating on the seat of an elderly woman two days ago.
Airline sources said a probe has commenced on the basis of an initial report submitted to the authorities.
"A detailed internal investigation is now on to ascertain if the crew followed the assigned SOPs (standard operating procedures) and whether they reported the matter when the aircraft landed back in Delhi, among other things."
The airline's In-Flight Services division has been tasked to carry out the investigation.
"There is anger among the public over the fact that such an incident did occur and that the inebriated person was allowed to walk out of the airport. He should have been apprehended on arrival in New Delhi. Even a complaint to Air India's security team would have resulted in some action," a source said.
"Lapses, if any, on part of the crew are being looked into."
Another airline source noted that economy class passengers have a limited quota of alcohol and the crew can refuse to serve more to any passenger found in an inebriated state.
"Saying that the crew went on to serve drunk passengers more alcohol is incorrect," the source said.
The airline on Saturday tweeted that the details of the incident were being sent to appropriate authorities for probe and possibly placing the passenger on the no-fly list.
Currently, safety laws on passengers' disruptive behaviour on-board aircraft mandate a ban on guilty passengers, restraining them from using domestic airlines.
Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha has asked the flag carrier to follow up on the matter on an urgent basis.
The incident took place on August 30 and was brought to the Minister's notice by Indrani Ghosh, the daughter of the affected elderly woman.
Ghosh tweeted on Friday that her mother had to face extreme shock and trauma after a drunk passenger fumbled across to her seat, removed his pants and urinated on her seat.
Tagging Ministers Suresh Prabhu and Sushma Swaraj, and Air India, Gosh urged the authorities to look into the matter urgently.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
