On Tuesday, as the AirAsia flight from Bengaluru landed in New Delhi, the airline handed over a passenger to the police for allegedly making bomb threats and misbehaving with the crew. The guy, who was reportedly inebriated, even tried to strip naked. “An inebriated guest onboard i5-722, from Bengaluru to New Delhi on April 6, 2021, behaved in an inappropriate manner, including with a cabin crew on duty inflight. The guest was advised repeatedly and paid heed only after multiple requests by crew members,” an airline spokesperson said.
“The matter was reported on landing at Delhi Airport to the police and necessary action has been initiated by AirAsia India on the basis of the regulations governing the safety and well-being of aircraft and passengers under the disruptive passenger handling policy,” the spokesperson added. “As an airline that has consistently emphasised and worked towards the security and well-being of our guests and crew, we have a zero-tolerance approach to disruptive behaviour on our flights and strongly condemn incidents of such nature,” AirAsia further said.
In a similar incident in July 2019, a man said to be inebriated caused a bomb scare at Hyderabad's Rajiv Gandhi International Airport (RGIA). The 24-year-old man was upset over his relationship with a woman, it was later revealed. The situation was tense as officials rushed to check two aircraft, as Union Home MinisterAmit Shah was scheduled to arrive in Telangana that day to launch a membership drive for the BJP. The man was booked under the suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, 1982.
More recently, an Indian expat was detained in Kuwait airport in November 2020 for being intoxicated at the airport and behaving inappropriately with the security staff.