Air India incident: Unruly passengers may be banned from flying

Representative image

In the light of the incident which took place on January 4, the unruly passengers may end up in the no-fly list for upto two years.

Passengers aboard Air India's Delhi-Mumbai flight created a ruckus after their flight was delayed because pilots encountered technical glitches just before take-off.

The plane was later grounded and another aircraft was brought in, but eventually the flight was delayed by seven hours.

With the footage going viral on social media, aviation regulator DGCA has asked Air India to investigate the matter and take action against the passengers.

The penalty

The no-fly  list, which came into being after the infamous incident involving a Shiv Sena parliamentarian, is one that no flier would want to be in.

The penalty for a passenger included on the list is severe. According to the norms listed by the DGCA, airlines can ban the flier for a duration starting from three months.

The ban period increases to six months, and two years or an defined period till the person is 'perceived to be a national security risk' by the Home Ministry.

A repeat offender will find himself or herself, banned for twice the duration of the previous ban.

What is unruly behaviour?

The DGCA has categorised unruly behaviour into three levels:

Level 1: Unruly behaviour (includes physical gestures, verbal harassment and unruly inebriation)

Level 2: Physically abusive behaviour (includes pushing, kicking, hitting, grabbing or inappropriate touching or sexual harassment)

Level 3: Life-threatening behaviour (includes damage to aircraft operating systems, physical violence such as choking, eye gouging, murderous assault, and attempted or actual breach of the flight crew compartment)

Global regulations

On international routes too, regulations have become stricter to limit unruly behaviour in the air.

On January 1, the Montreal Protocol 2014, or MP14, came into force. The global treaty enables countries to prosecute unruly passengers.

The new protocol closes a legal hole in the earlier Tokyo Convention 1963, which was not very clear on the jurisdiction  in which a trouble-making passengers could be legally tried.

Till now, the passenger albeit of where he or she is traveling to, could be tried only in the country where the aircraft was registered. But now with the MP14, the flier will have to face the courts in the country where the flight lands.