DGCA Chief Says Efforts Were Made To Cover Up Urinating Incident On Air India Flight

Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar, on the Air India urination incident, said that "everybody failed" as the "case was not reported and people tried to cover it up".

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An incident of urination on an Air India international flight from New York to Delhi shook the entire aviation industry of India recently. The incident happened on November 26, 2022, when an allegedly intoxicated passenger Shankar Mishra peed on an elderly woman in the business class of the flight. The incident was not reported to the police, or aviation authorities at the moment and came to light in 2023, resulting in the arrest of Mishra from Bengaluru. The incident also resulted in DGCA imposing a monetary fine of Rs 30 lakh on Air India, and suspending pilot's license for 3 months.  

As reported by IANS, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief Arun Kumar has described the Air India urination incident as "unfortunate", and said that there were efforts to cover it up which was not needed. Reportedly, Air India crew made the victim negotiate with the accused, who apologized for the incident and offered a monetary compensation to the victim. 

Kumar said that it shouldn't have happened in the first place, however it was an "unfortunate incident". He added that lack of enforcement on part of the airlines led to that incident. The DGCA chief further said that the airline was instructed to follow due instructions and fulfill the civil aviation requirements.

In this case (referring to the urinating incident), Kumar said that "everybody failed" as the "case was not reported and people tried to cover it up". There was no need for that as it had happened due to somebody's mischief and the airlines just had to report the incident, the DGCA said while speaking to the media.

The outgoing DGCA Chief also recounted the engine snags during the beginning of his tenure as the most serious issue which he faced. The Pratt & Whitney (PW) engines of two major airlines developed snags, and after several meetings with the concerned aircraft manufacturer and engine maker, all the defective engines were replaced, Kumar told media persons.