Senior official of Air India assaulted onboard Sydney-New Delhi flight. Details here

livemint.com:

Hindustan Times informed in an exclusive report that the scuffle erupted over the basic rules onboard aircraft and the aviation regulator Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was informed about the incident. “The airline’s head of the inflight services department, Sandeep Verma, who was flying from Sydney to Delhi on AI 301 was hit by a Delhi-based passenger. However, no action was taken against him," an official close to the matter told HT.

“A passenger on board AI301 operating Sydney-Delhi on 9 July 2023 behaved in an unacceptable manner during flight, despite verbal and written warnings, causing distress to other passengers, which included one of our employees," the airline spokesperson told HT. “Upon the flight’s safe landing at Delhi, the passenger was handed over to the security agency, and the passenger later apologized in writing. The DGCA was duly informed of the incident.

Air India will take a firm stand against misbehavior. We will pursue this to the full extent of the law," the spokesperson added. The incident occurred as Sandeep Verma who had a business class reservation but was downgraded to economy class as some of the business class seats were defunctive.

“Verma accepted the downgrade and was then allotted seat 30C. He, however, later moved to row 25 since it was vacant. After shifting, Verma began correcting his co-passenger (who was freely walking around in the galley and also picked up a few alcohol bottles for no reason) and had a loud voice.

This is when the passenger slapped Verma and twisted his head and abused him," the official added. Amid the scuffle, Sandeep Verma rushed to the rear side of the aircraft and the female cabin crew members tried to stop the unruly passenger. “The male