Italian passenger “punched and spat” on Vistara flight

• An Italian passenger was restrained to her seat by the crew of an Indian airline.
• After she allegedly struck one employee and spit on another.
• Her lawyer denied the allegations, saying it is a “false story”.

An Italian passenger was restrained to her seat by the crew of an Indian airline after she allegedly struck one employee and spit on another.

The woman, who was taking a Vistara flight out of Abu Dhabi, was detained on Monday in Mumbai before being freed on a police bail.

Her lawyer has denied the allegations, saying it is a “false story”.

But Vistara said its staff had to restrain the woman for “continued unruly conduct and violent behavior”.

According to a story in locally news paper, a Vistara employee claimed in a police record that the passenger hit them and spit on their colleague.

The woman allegedly moved from her economy class seat to a business class seat, to which the crew member objected.

The woman is charged with “stripping and polluting the plane,” according to the complaint.

Vistara said in a statement that the flight’s captain “issued a warning card and made a decision to restrain the customer” because of her behavior.

The woman’s lawyer, Prabhakar Tripathi, told the Media that she was “uncomfortable” in her allotted seat and “requested to be moved to a vacant seat” and that caused a “disagreement” with the crew. He said she was also allegedly not allowed to use the bathroom due to turbulence.

“She was later allowed to go to the washroom but was tied up on return,” Mr. Tripathi said. He also denied media reports which quoted police officers as saying that the woman was drunk.

A senior Mumbai police official told reporters that the woman was “booked for misbehaving”.

“We served her a notice and produced her before the court, following which she was allowed to go,” said Dikshit Gedam, a deputy commissioner of police.

After a man was detained in January for allegedly peeing on a female passenger, scrutiny of passenger misconduct on aeroplanes heightened in India. The event led to criticism of how the airline, Air India, handled the situation.

Since then, a number of claimed incidents of disorderly conduct on board other Indian aircraft have been recorded.

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