AI response should have been swifter: Tata Group

MUMBAI: Tata Group Chairman N Chandrasekaran admitted on Sunday that Air India’s response to the incident of a drunk passenger urinating on a woman on one of its international flights last year should have been “much swifter”.

In a statement, which came days after the aviation regulator DGCA pulled up the Tata Groupowned full-service carrier, Chandrasekaran also said that “we fell short of addressing this situation the way we should have.”

In a shocking incident, an inebriated man urinated on a female co-passenger, a senior citizen in her seventies, in the business class of Air India New York-New Delhi flight on Nov 26 last year.

“The incident has been a matter of personal anguish to me and my colleagues at Air India... We fell short of addressing this situation the way it should have been, Chandrasekaran said in the statement.

Scindia assures speedy action over AI incident

GWALIOR: Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said speedy action will be taken in the case where a man allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger on a New York-Mumbai flight last November.

Delhi Police on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old accused, Shankar Mishra.

He allegedly urinated on the woman, a senior citizen, in an inebriated condition in the business class of the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year.

“Further action will be taken speedily after the completion of the ongoing proceedings,” Scindia told reporters here on Saturday without elaborating. The carrier’s CEO on Saturday issued an apology over handling of the incident and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been de-rostered and the policy of serving alcohol on flights is being reviewed. The Delhi Police arrested Mishra from Bengaluru after he was traced to that city through technical surveillance, officials earlier said.

A Delhi court on Saturday sent Mishra to judicial remand for 14 days while rejecting a plea by police for his custody. The Delhi Police had registered an FIR against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India. Mishra, who was working with the US multinational firm Wells Fargo in India, was sacked on Friday.