Man found smoking in flight, detained

A businessman from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand was arrested at Patna airport after he was found smoking in the washroom of a Bangalore-Patna-Ranchi flight.

The accused, identified as Deepak Kumar, owns an automobile agency in Hazaribagh and was travelling by the Indigo flight 6E-485.

Sources said that the passenger, seated on 30 C, went to the washroom after the flight took off from Bangalore and started smoking. The smoke sensors in the washroom immediately alerted the captain in the cockpit, who informed the crew and airport mandarins.

The passenger was put under the crew's observation till the flight landed at the Jayaprakash Narayan International Airport in Patna on Friday afternoon. “He was immediately handed over to the airport police station where the trader admitted his mistake,” said an aviation source.

However, investigation is on how he could procure matchstick/lighter/cigarette, which is strictly prohibited and should have been noticed during the multi-layer security check-up.

Sources in the Patna airport told DH on Sunday that Deepak told his investigators that he was a chain-smoker and was, therefore, desperate to take a puff on the flight. He has, however, admitted his lapse and submitted a written apology. He was eventually released.

This is the second such incident in recent times when a passenger has been found smoking in a flight. A passenger from West Bengal was arrested after he was found smoking in a similar circumstances when an Indigo flight, in which he was travelling, was on way to Surat in December 2018.