Top Air India officials aware of urination incident hours after flight, reveals emails

NEW DELHI: The top officials of Air India including its CEO Campbell Wilson were reported about the drunk passenger urinating on an elderly woman by a crew member onboard the New York-New Delhi flight within hours of the flight's touchdown, an ANI report reveals.
As per e-mails accessed by ANI, the Air India cabin crew supervisor had reportedly sent out emails on November 27 at around 1 pm to the head of the Inflight Service Department (IFSD), base operations in India, Lead HR head of IFSD, and head of the northern region of IFSD and of complaints (customer care), informing them about the incident.
Earlier, the top management at Air India claimed that they were not informed about the incident after the flight landed, which led to the accused Shankar Mishra walking away scott free.

Air India chairman and managing director (CMD) Campbell Wilson said that the airline had constituted an internal committee to probe lapses on part of its crew and address the deficiencies that delayed quick redressal of the situation that occurred after a passenger on board Flight AI-102 allegedly urinated on a woman passenger, was reported to airlines officials soon after landing.
The mail containing the 'brief summary' of the incident was also acknowledged with a reply of "Ok, Noted," at 3.47 Hours.
One of the initial emails after the telephonic discussions, accessed by ANI, was sent at 3.46pm, which was also read and acknowledged by the recipients.
A detailed thread of emails at 7.46 pm the same day also included emails addressed to the head of the ground handling department and the heads of customer service and inflight services.
Moreover, communications also show that Wilson who received an email from the woman passenger's son-in-law on the same evening had forwarded the mail to the head of customer care calling attention to the mail received by him.

Shankar Mishra, who was in an inebriated condition, had allegedly urinated on an elderly woman passenger seated in business class. After the flight landed, the passenger walked away scot-free.
The incident was not reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) which was attributed to the delay in reporting the incident by the airline crew.
The incident came to light after TOI carried a report on January 4.
Later, show cause notices were sent to not only to the airline and its chiefs but also to the entire crew of the flight.
“The conduct of the concerned airline appears to be unprofessional and has led to a systemic failure. Prima facie it lacks appreciation of regulatory obligations as described in applicable Aircraft Rules 1937, Civil Aviation Requirements on ‘Handling of Unruly Passengers’, Cabin Safety Circular, Air India Operations Manual, Air India Safety and Emergency Procedure Manual and Air India Quick Reference Handbook and is devoid of empathy,” said DGCA in a statement.

Meanwhile, taking note of the case, the DGCA on Friday slapped a fine of Rs 30 lakh on Air India and suspended the pilot-in-command's licence for three months.