Second Fine In A Week: DGCA Asks Air India To Cough Up Rs 10 lakh For Not Reporting Passenger Smoking On Flight

New Delhi: The aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has fined Air India a second time in less than a week. On Tuesday, the DGCA imposed a Rs 10 lakh fine on the airline for not reporting another incident of unruly passenger behaviour on board AI-142 (Paris – New Delhi) on December 6, 2022.

As per the DGCA, a passenger was caught smoking in the lavatory. He was drunk and not adhering to the crew’s instructions.

After learning about the incident for the first time on January 5 this year, the DGCA issued a show-cause notice to the Accountable Manager of Air India as to why action should not be taken against them for dereliction of their regulatory obligations. The airline submitted its reply to the notice on January 23, India Today reported.

After perusing the reply, the DGCA has now imposed a fine on Air India for not reporting the incident to the regulator and delaying in referring the matter to its internal committee, which is a violation of applicable DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements, the report added.

Earlier, on January 20, the DGCA imposed a Rs 30 lakh fine on Air India and Rs 3 lakh fine on its Director, In-Flight Services for violation of applicable rules and failure to discharge their duties when a male passenger on board an Air India New York – New Delhi flight on November 26, 2022, allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger. The DGCA has also suspended the licence of the pilot-in-command of the flight for three months.