A 36-year-old female doctor was taken into custody by Bengaluru Police after she allegedly misbehaved with cabin crew aboard an Air India Express flight and even threatened to crash the aircraft, earlier this week.
The incident took place minutes before flight IX2749 was scheduled to take off for Surat International Airport from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), at around 2.30 pm, on Tuesday.
According to sources, the female passenger, Vyas Hiral Mohanbhai, left her baggage in the first row of the aircraft before occupying her seat at 20F.
When the cabin crew objected to her bag’s placement and asked her to keep it in the overhead compartment near her seat, she refused. She, instead, demanded that the crew move her bag to her seat, the sources said.
Despite repeated requests by the crew and the pilot’s intervention, Ms Mohanbhai refused to comply and allegedly began misbehaving. The sources said she also shouted at fellow passengers who tried to reason with her.
The situation escalated when she allegedly threatened to “crash the flight”. The pilot and the crew alerted the security and CISF personnel, who subsequently removed her from the aircraft.
The woman’s behaviour threatened the safety of the remaining passengers, the sources said.
The doctor is a resident of Shivanahalli, near Yelahanka, in Bengaluru.
According to The Times of India, Ms Mohanbhai also abused and manhandled police officers at KIA police station. Her husband reportedly told police that she has stopped practicing medicine.
The woman has been booked under sections 351 (4) (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication) and 353 (1)(b) (statements of public mischief) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita as well as section 3(1)(a) (act of violence against a person on board an aircraft in flight which is likely to endanger the safety of such aircraft) of the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act, the Indian Express reported.