IndiGo flight assault row: Russian model onboard says co-pilot blamed delay on passengers

Sharing insights from a recent incident where an IndiGo passenger attacked the co-pilot on flight no 6E 2175, a Russian model and actor, Evgenia Belskaia, who was onboard with her team said most of the passengers were furious because of the continued delay in takeoff.

The Russian model said that the passengers were initially told that the flight would take off two hours after its scheduled departure. However, later they were informed that the flight would be delayed by 10 hours, and later it got delayed by 3 more hours.

As a reaction of the delay that Belskaia said lasted 13 hours, many passengers started questioning the crew and the pilots. She further said that co-pilot Anup Kumar told the passengers that they were asking too many questions and that is the reason the flight got delayed.

She alleged that when the co-pilot in question spoke in a rude manner, the passenger identified as Satish Kataria jumped at Kumar.

In a comment in the post in which she shared a video of the incident, Belskaia said, "I want to clear a bit this situation!!! Pilot was not nice to the passengers and blamed them in this delay, because they was asking too many questions! Also crew was not nice! They did not even give water of food to people!!! It’s wrong to hit the pilot! But the crew was not nice at all! That’s why this happened!"

“My team was waiting 10 hours for their flight then one guy got fed up and after this they had to wait 3 more hours! Police took the guy and they had to change pilot also! Crazy really!,” the Russian model said.

The IndiGo flight that was scheduled to depart at 7:40 am finally took off at 6 pm on Sunday.

Security personnel immediately arrived at the spot and apprehended Kataria, after which the police were informed. Kataria was taken to a Delhi police station from where he was later released on bail.

"The IndiGo team was saying that the flight had been delayed by an hour. It went on for at least 10 hours until we were allowed to board the plane," said Belskaia, who boarded the Goa to Delhi flight along with her team.

A case under sections 323 (punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint) and 290 (punishment for creating public nuisance) of the IPC and section 22 of the Aircraft Rules has been registered against the passenger and investigation taken up, another police officer said.

Followed by the incident, as a precautionary step to avoid such a ruckus, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation issued Standard Operating Procedures for the airlines to publish accurate real-time information regarding flight delays and appropriately sensitise staff at airports to suitably communicate with passengers amid fog-related disruptions at airports.

Referring to the assault, IndiGo also issued a statement after discussions with the internal committee, which proposed to include Kataria's name in the "no fly list" category.