Scuffle onboard AI plane; cops conduct enquiry

TROUBLE ONBOARD: The scuffle allegedly broke out between pilots and crew members.

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New Delhi: Delhi Police has initiated an enquiry into the incident of a mid-air scuffle allegedly between pilots and some crew members of an Air India flight after registering a case on a complaint by an air hostess.

A senior police official on Sunday said that the case has been registered under relevant provisions of the IPC dealing with molestation, hurt and common intention.

The official said that the police will also take the version of the accused before initiating further proceedings in the case. The incident, which occurred early on Saturday when the flight IC-884 was cruising over Pakistan territory, is understood to have originated in verbal exchanges between the two sides during the pre-flight briefing session ahead of take-off from Sharjah, airline sources said.

The case has been registered under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 34 (common intention) of IPC.

Meanwhile, a three-member probe panel has been set up by Air India to conduct a separate enquiry into the incident in the Sharjah-Lucknow-Delhi flight.

The Airbus A-320 was carrying 106 passengers and seven crew members and had reached Lucknow at 0600 hours on Saturday when the matter was reported.

While an air-hostess of the flight lodged a complaint against two pilots with the police, the AI enquiry panel is in the process of questioning the pilots and the crew, including a flight engineer and other staff on duty.

An airline spokesman claimed that at no point of time did any of the two pilots come out of the cockpit. Denying some reports to this effect, he said, "There was never an instance of no pilot being present in the cockpit. The Commander of the flight was in his seat throughout the flight and never left it. Thus, there was no question of flight safety being compromised. This could also be corroborated by the recordings of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (or the black box)."

Describing the incident as "a clear case of indiscipline", the spokesperson said the Air India management would take stringent action on the basis of the enquiry report against whoever was found guilty.