Parliamentary panel to take up issue of unruly air passenger behavior today

On Monday, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism, and Culture will take up the matter of recent cases of disorderly behaviour on flights and the steps that airlines must take to avert them. Several Civil Aviation Ministry officials are set to testify before the committee.

The development comes in the wake of recent incidences of passengers misbehaving on planes, such as the Air India aircraft from New York to New Delhi, in which a man allegedly urinated on his senior citizen co-passenger.

As previously reported by ANI, the committee chairman, Vijaysai Reddy, had written a letter to the Ministry of Civil Aviation on the steps taken by the ministry following the December 20 incident last year in which Lok Sabha MP Tejasvi Surya inadvertently attempted to open an aircraft’s emergency door.

Surya and Tamil Nadu BJP President Annamalai were on an Indigo flight from Chennai to Tiruchirappalli on December 10, 2022, when the event occurred. Meanwhile, sources close to the situation told ANI that the parliamentary committee will suggest many policy reforms to safeguard the safety of passengers on board.

They stated that the committee will request that any proposal include security professionals on board to regulate unruly passengers and respond to any security issues. According to sources, in addition to officials from the Ministry of Civil Aviation, officials from the Law Ministry will testify before the committee.