70 Indigo fliers offloaded for unruly behaviour

At least 70 passengers were offloaded from a Raipur-bound Indigo flight at Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here on January 22 night on the grounds of “unruly behaviour”, following which the fliers lodged a complaint with airport police alleging they were harassed by the airline staff.

The incident happened between 8.30 pm and 9.00 pm. The passengers, travelling to Raipur from Hyderabad in a group, were trying to exchange seats among themselves.

An altercation erupted between the cabin crew and two to three members of the group over this. “The cabin crew then called the ground staff to assist them. The situation worsened and led to the extent of offloading of passengers,” airport police inspector T Sudhakar said. He said the passengers in a complaint alleged that they were harrased by the airline’s staff and the flight took-off without handing them their check-in baggage.

The airline in a statement said a first information report (FIR) has been lodged with the local police in this regard. “Indigo confirms offloading of 70 passengers (group booking) who were scheduled to fly on 6E-466 from Hyderabad to Raipur on January 22 on the grounds of unruly behaviour,” the statement said.

Some of the male passengers were standing in the aisle and  did not pay heed to the repeated requests made by the cabin crew to take their seats before take-off. They then “began to brush their luggage against one of the crew members,” it alleged.

The cockpit informed the captain-in-command of the situation who further brought it to the notice of airline’s security ground staff. The staff requested these passengers to cooperate with the crew, but, they started shouting and made “threatening” remarks, the airline further said. It said other fliers also requested the crew to offload the “unruly” passengers.

Despite their “unacceptable” behaviour, IndiGo went out of its way to ensure they all were served meals at the airport and accommodated on the subsequent flight free of charge, the airlines said.