Act sternly with IndiGo

The DGCA and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security will probe the episode of an IndiGo passenger being assaulted on the Delhi airport tarmac, though a video taken by a “whistleblower” clearly shows what happened. Such behaviour by two IndiGo employees in wrestling an angry passenger to the ground might have been forgiven if this assault was on a railway platform by untrained coolies. But an airline, and one that is a market leader, is supposed to train and sensitise its staff on how to handle travellers. It should be ashamed to have on its rolls staff members who responded in this horrific way, regardless of any provocation. Such gory incidents of air passengers being roughed up were heard of in the United States, where airline security staff are known to act roughly. To see it happen in India, where a no-fly list rule has just been launched, is disturbing.

IndiGo has grown from being a budget airline to the nation’s biggest domestic carrier. Its apology to the passenger is hardly adequate compensation for what its employees did to him. The two flight handling staffers have no business to be in the service industry. There’s no word yet on what IndiGo has done about them while the airline has been quite vocal about dealing with a former employee who was said to have instigated the incident. A firm government response is needed. The airline must be penalised lest the impression spread that only unruly passengers will be targeted in a country with a no-fly list procedure, and such rude staff can go scot-free.