Use 'restraining devices' if needed: DGCA's advisory to airlines on unruly passengers

Any non-compliance towards applicable regulations shall be dealt strictly, DGCA said (Representative image: Reuters)

The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), in an advisory issued to registered airline operators on January 6, said "restraining devices" should be used in cases of unruly passengers when all other options have been exhausted.

The advisory comes amid the flak drawn by Air India, after it was reported that a drunk passenger on its New York-Delhi flight had urinated on a woman onboard.

The DGCA said that the crew members must inform an unruly passenger onboard of the the repercussion and consequences of his or her behaviour.  "Applying restraining devices should be used when all conciliatory approaches have been exhausted," it added.

The aviation sector regulator further added that the pilot in command is "responsible for the safety of the passengers and cargo carried and for the maintenance of flight discipline".

The advisory further said that upon landing, the airline representative should "lodge an FIR with concerned security agency at aerodrome, to whom, the unruly passenger shall be handed over".

The director-in-flight services must report the unruly passenger incident, which took place on the flight, to the DGCA, it added.

"Any non-compliance towards applicable regulations shall be dealt strictly and invite enforcement action," the regulator warned.

The advisory also noted that non-action or inappropriate action by the airlines towards such untoward incidents "has tarnished the image of air travel in different segments of society".

The DGCA's strongly-worded advisory comes a day after it issued a show-cause notice to Air India. On November 26, a drunk man exposed himself and urinated on an elderly woman in the business class of the airline's flight AI-102 from New York to Delhi.

The elderly woman wrote a letter to N Chandrasekaran, Tata Group chairman, for action to be taken as she claimed that the crew did not take appropriate action at the time of the shocking act. Air India is run by the Tata Group.

The airline has banned the man, identified as a Mumbai resident in his 50s, for 30 days - the maximum they can do - as a "first step" while the conduct of the airline staff has also been questioned since they did not handover the unruly passenger to security after the plane landed.

The DGCA said that Air India's conduct in this case appears to be "unprofessional" and has led to a "systemic failure". The regulatory body has granted the carrier two weeks time to respond for what they called "dereliction of their regulatory obligations".