Hyderabad: A 29-year-old passenger travelling with his cancer-patient mother from Hyderabad to Bagdogra was deboarded from a flight after allegedly breaking a galley glass partition in the aircraft and assaulting security personnel following an argument over the delay of the flight on Sunday. After the incident, both the airline staff and the passenger have filed complaints against each other. RGI Airport police have registered two FIRs.In his complaint to the police, the security manager of a private airline alleged that the passenger, seated in 2E on flight 6E6872, broke the galley partition window between two sections in the aircraft with his elbow, causing damage worth over Rs1 lakh and delaying the flight’s departure. The complainant also alleged that even after the captain and lead crew member asked the passenger to deboard for causing delay, the passenger refused to do so.“He created a disturbance for nearly 90 minutes despite requests from fellow passengers to disembark. He assaulted the manager of ramp operations and security staff, before being escorted off by the security personnel along with the CISF staff,” the airline staff said.Due to the incident, the flight, which was scheduled to take off at 8.15am, departed at 9.43 am. Based on the complaint, a case was registered against the passenger under Sections 115(2) (voluntarily causing assault) and 324(5) (Mischief — cause loss or damage to amount of one lakh rupees onwards) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).The passenger got off the plane along with his mother. He was handed over to RGI Airport police. He lodged a counter complaint against the airline staff alleging that when he had questioned the crew about the four-minute delay of the flight, they responded in a rude manner.“Instead of properly responding to my query or assisting us, they responded rudely. Despite the lack of assistance, I managed to find our seats and helped my mother. When I began video recording the behaviour of the airline staff on my phone, I was asked to deboard. I was assaulted with a glass object by the airline staff and forcibly removed from the flight causing distress to both me and ailing mother,” the passenger alleged.A case was registered against the airline staff under Sections 118(1) (voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapons or means), 115(2) (voluntarily causing hurt), 126 (wrongful restraint) and 351(3) (criminal intimidation) of the BNS.“The passenger, who is a PG student from Kishangunj in Bihar, was angry that few days ago, he was not allowed to board the flight because of being late by 10 minutes. On Sunday, when the flight was late by four minutes, he picked up an argument with the staff. Airline representative alleged that the passenger damaged the galley partition in the flight and assaulted the security staff. The passenger alleged that he was assaulted by airline staff. We booked two cases. Notices will be issued to the accused,” RGI Outpost inspector B Kiran Kumar said.
