India: Air India fined for passenger’s mid-flight urination

•  Air India is fined $37,000 for not handling incidents professionally.
• The man allegedly relieved himself on the 72-year-old woman.
• The man was allowed to disembark as usual, and no immediate action was taken.

NEW DELHI: Indian media reported that Air India was fined $ 37,000 for its handling of an incident in which a drunk senior US bank executive was accused of urinating on a female passenger.

On a November 26 flight from New York to New Delhi, the man allegedly relieved himself on the 72-year-old woman seated in business class, an incident dubbed “peegate” by the media.

According to reports on Friday and Saturday, the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation fined Air India’s director of in-flight services 300,000 rupees in addition to the carrier’s penalty of three million rupees ($37,000).

The pilot’s license was also suspended for three months for “failing to discharge his duties.”

The banker, Indian national Shankar Mishra, was allowed to disembark as usual. No immediate action was taken.

After the story was widely publicized in Indian media, police arrested Mishra.

US bank Wells Fargo fired him from his job as vice president of its Indian operations after the “deeply disturbing” allegations.

Air India was heavily chastised for how it handled the woman’s complaint.  The airline’s CEO was forced to issue an apology.

“Air India acknowledges that it could have handled these matters better, both in the air and on the ground, and is committed to taking action,” chief executive Campbell Wilson said.

The case is the latest embarrassing incident to be reported in India’s booming airline sector in recent months.

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