Pee-Gate: Air India Fined 30 Lakhs, Pilot’s Licence Suspended For 3 Months

The aviation watchdog Director General of Civil Aviation fined Air India 30 lakh and suspended the pilot-in-license command’s for three months on the New York-Delhi flight where an intoxicated passenger urinated on a female passenger.

“We acknowledge gaps in our reporting and are taking relevant steps to ensure that they are addressed,” said the airline after the watchdog’s action. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation also fined Air India’s director of in-flight services 3 lakh for “failure to execute her duties” (DGCA).

This occurs a day after the airline banned Shankar Mishra from flying for four months due to the incident where he urinated on the plane on November 26 of last year. The prohibition was in addition to the earlier 30-day prohibition it had placed on him.

Only on January 4 did the incident come to the attention of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), and the most recent steps are due to multiple norms being broken.

When the plane landed in India, Shankar Mishra had left. The woman contacted the chairman of the Air India group a letter on November 27 detailing the terrible occurrence. Air India only reported the incident to the authorities on January 4, saying both parties had “resolved the problem” and that it was unnecessary to do so. He was arrested by the Delhi Police two days later, six weeks after the incident.

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