Dr Saurabh Rai, a Bengaluru-based vasculo-surgeon was accused of attempting to hijack a plane and offloaded, when he complained about mosquitoes being in the flight.
Dr Saurabh was travelling from Lucknow to Bengaluru on April 8 in a 6am IndiGo flight when the incident happened.
According to a video taken by the doctor and posted by ANI, there were many mosquitoes in the plane. People can be seen waving the magazines in the air, trying to ward off the insects.
“[This flight] is full of mosquitoes,” Saurabh can be heard saying in the video. “Look at this guys basically everybody in the plane trying to kill mosquitoes. […] These mosquitoes are massive! […] It is truly ridiculous!” he adds.
What happened after this, Saurabh alleges, is that he asked the cabin crew to provide passengers with a mosquito repellent or use a spray to ease the situation.
However, he was offloaded by the staff, reportedly, for ‘unruly’ behaviour. According to a statement by the airline, Saurabh became “aggressive and used threatening language”, leading him to be offloaded from the flight.
A passenger, Saurabh Rai, scheduled to fly this morning from Lucknow to Bengaluru, was offloaded on grounds of unruly behaviour. He expressed concerns over mosquitos on board. Before cabin crew could address his concerns he became aggressive & used threatening language: IndiGo
— ANI (@ANI) April 10, 2018
IndiGo added, “As matter escalated after closure of the aircraft doors, he attempted to instigate other passengers on board to damage the aircraft & used words such as ‘hijack’. Hence, keeping in mind applicable safety protocols crew apprised pilot-in-command, who decided to offload him".
However, Saurabh, speaking to a number of news channels denied the airline’s version of events. He said that he was manhandled while being made to disembark from the flight. He added that it was from the media that he heard first that he had used the term “hijack”.
“They also called me a terrorist and manhandled me,” Saurabh alleges. He was also told to write an apology letter for causing delay in the flight. “I refused because I had not done anything wrong. I had raised the concern keeping everyone’s well being in mind,” he said.
He also questioned whether the airline would actually allow someone who threatened to hijack the plane to re-board if they simply wrote an apology letter.
The incident also caused other passengers to complaint about the mosquito menace on board.
Hi, Sumit! Apologies for the experience. As per NGT regulation, fumigation can be done only when passengers are not on-board. We comply with that and would like to clarify that while we have defined procedures to avoid such instances, 1/3
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) April 10, 2018
we are sure that you will understand that entry of insects or flies cannot be completely guarded against. However, your feedback is valuable to us and we're sharing the same with the concerned team to avoid such instances in future. 2/3
— IndiGo (@IndiGo6E) April 10, 2018