Bengaluru Air India Express flyer booked after threatening to crash plane over cabin luggage

Air India cancelled multiple international flights on Friday due to enhanced maintenance and operational reasons. (File image)

A doctor was deplaned from a Bengaluru to Surat Air India Express flight and booked on Tuesday after she created a ruckus over cabin baggage and threatened to crash the plane.

Vyas Hiral Mohanbhai, a 35-year-old doctor, was seated in 20F and had placed her luggage in the first-row overhead bin. She refused to move it when the crew asked her to. Dr Vyas shouted at the staff and demanded that they follow her orders.

As she created a ruckus, the crew informed the captain, who reached out to the authorities. Dr Vyas was offloaded before takeoff and handed over to the airport police. Sources said she continued misbehaving and allegedly tried to assault a female staffer at the station.

An FIR has been registered under BNS sections 351(4) and 353(1)(b). Investigation is underway, the police said.

Meanwhile, two former senior Air India flight attendants have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, alleging wrongful termination after they refused to alter their statements about a technical malfunction involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner door last year. The claims, reported by The Times of India, come amid heightened scrutiny of aviation safety following the fatal crash of an Air India Express flight.

According to the report, the incident occurred on May 14, 2024, after flight AI-129 from Mumbai to London (Boeing 787 VT-ANQ) had docked at Heathrow and passengers had disembarked. The flight attendants allege that the aircraft’s slide raft deployed unexpectedly, even though the door was opened in 'manual mode,' a scenario that typically should not trigger the slide, which is designed to activate only when the door is in 'armed' or 'automatic' mode.

The flight crew said their initial statements, supported by the captain and cabin-in-charge, corroborated the malfunction. However, they claim they were later pressured by Air India management to revise their accounts and, upon refusing, were served show-cause notices and dismissed from service within 48 hours.

In their letter to the Prime Minister, the attendants allege that the termination took place exactly one year prior to the June 12, 2025, Ahmedabad crash that killed over 270 people. “We refused to change our statements despite considerable pressure exerted on us by higher authorities,” the letter said, naming three senior officials. The attendants also claimed that the pilot later changed his statement, saying he was not looking when the door was opened.