A drunk 24-year old passenger on board Air India Flight 2336 from Delhi to Bangkok urinated on another customer seated directly in front of him in business class on Thursday.
The victim is the Managing Director of Bridgestone India, who ensconced in bulkhead seat 1D and was asleep at the time. The perpetrator had consumed two glasses of whisky, and during the aircraft’s descent into Thailand stood up, unzipped, and let loose.
Crew members provided towels and apparently even a change of clothes to the man. Another passenger demanded the perp get sent to coach – and he was relegated to economy for landing.
The drenched man initially didn’t want to press charges. He just wanted to leave, shower, and make it to meetings. However he did finally lodge a formal complaint with the airline, arguing that the carrier should have better screened an obviously intoxicated passenger prior to before boarding. He demands,
- Consequences for the urinator
- Written apology from Air India.
- Measures to prevent similar incidents in the future
- Compensation
The urinator has been banned from Air India for 30 days. According to Air India,
The crew followed all laid down procedures, and the matter has been reported to the authorities. In addition to warning the unruly passenger, our crew offered to assist an aggrieved passenger to take up a grievance with authorities in Bangkok, which was declined at the time
Air India has had its share of similar incidents with a woman in business class urinated on and then it happening again a mere 10 days later, but these famous incidents are now two years old and we’ve seen numerous intervening examples on other carriers (especially American Airlines) in the interim.