Licence to spill: Urination, aviation and alcohol — time to clean up the mess

A lot of people, especially women of different ages, see air travel as a safe option - it's important to keep it that way. (Image: AP)

There’s been a foul stench around Indian aviation the past few days. It seems high, flying Indians are using the public as a toilet instead of using public toilets (as VIPees in this country are wont to do).

First, we had the incident aboard an Air India New York-Delhi flight, where a sozzled passenger urinated on a 72-year-old lady. This was followed by another incident of mid-air micturition, this time on a Paris-Delhi flight. Thereafter, two passengers were de-boarded for drinking aboard an Indigo Delhi-Patna flight, and another two were de-boarded from a Go First Goa-Mumbai flight for misbehaving with a lady crew member. It’s not as if things only go wrong at 30,000 feet. A man was caught openly unburdening his bladder at Delhi airport. While correlation isn’t causation, the common factors in these incidents are men, Delhi, and booze.

The regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has sent a notice to Air India asking why it had failed to report the incidents on time, and also reminded the airlines of what’s expected of them, because a lot is at stake, starting with the safety and security of passengers.

Aviation and alcohol

Back in the day, airlines began serving free liquor to make their customers feel that sitting in a juddering, cramped aluminium can for hours was a pleasurable experience. In India, though, alcohol is banned on domestic flights. But it is freely available at many airports across the country. Passengers can also drink elsewhere and then come to the airport.

While the security team, and the airport and airline staff, can stop a passenger from boarding the plane for being inebriated, this rarely happens for more reasons than one.

On international flights, the crew has to take a call whether to stop serving liquor to a passenger based on his condition. However, there have been umpteen instances where co-passengers have demanded alcohol and shared it with a person already teetering on the edge.

While specific data is not available, people say that the increase in red-eye flights has triggered the trend of consuming alcohol and boarding the flight with the intention of sleeping it off. Which is fine, till we have a situation where the person has had many too many drinks and commits nuisance in more ways than one.

Statutory warning

Aviation and alcohol have to coexist. Thus, the only way forward is to handle such cases expeditiously, making sure that swift and strong punishment acts as a deterrence for others, laying the ground for a more agreeable flying experience.

Apparently, back in the day, sweet and smiling Malaysian Airlines hostesses would announce on international flights that anyone caught carrying drugs into the country would be executed on arrival. Maybe Indian airlines ought to introduce something along those lines, where the crew periodically announces the consequences of misdemeanour, disorderliness, or disruption, which includes a ban on flying. We could also shame offenders by publishing their names on a website. Public humiliation acts as a serious deterrent.

Safe travels

It is important that all airlines, not just Air India, take such issues seriously. A lot of people, especially women of different ages, look at airlines as a way of safe travel compared to other means like buses or railways.

It is important that air travel remains that way.