Jet Airways on Wednesday issued a statement expressing regret and said it has already de-rostered the pilot concerned adding that a full-fledged internal investigation was underway
Serious charges of racism and assault resurfaced against an expat pilot of Jet Airways on Wednesday with cricketer Harbhajan Singh posting a series of tweets about the incident. Singh levelled two grave charges against the pilot - first of hurling racist comments against a wheelchair-bound physically-challenged man and the second charge of assaulting a woman.
Jet Airways on Wednesday issued a statement expressing regret and said it has already de-rostered the pilot concerned adding that a full-fledged internal investigation was underway. "The pilot concerned remains de-rostered since the day of the event, pending results of a full-fledged internal investigation that is currently underway...," a Jet Airways spokesperson said on condition of anonymity.
In a series of angry tweets, Singh termed the incident as "disgraceful" and even appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene and ensure strict action is taken against pilot Bernd Hoesslin. "So called this Bernd Hoesslin a pilot with @jetairways called my fellow indian(u bloody indian get out of my flight)while he is earning here (sic)," tweeted the off-spinner, who recently picked his 200th wicket in T20s in the on-going Indian Premier League.
The alleged incident involved Singh's family friend Punjabi and Bollywood music director Jatinder Shah and Bollywood marketing professional Pooja Singh Gujral. The incident took place on April 3 on a Chandigarh-Mumbai flight. Harbhajan's tweets have come at a time when Jet Airways' Indian pilots' Union has already been raising concerns about the 'racist approach' of expat pilots in the airline and has asked to ban them from the cockpit. Jet Airways has nearly 60 expat commanders, who mainly operate its Boeing 737 and ATR fleet.
Sources in Jet Airways said that the pilot was not in a good mood that day and that "he lost his cool" after the flight got delayed due to issues with loading of luggage. Gujral wrote about the "horrific" incident on Facebook and alleged that she was "disrespected" and "emotionally tortured" by the pilot during the journey. Gujral said that Shah's wheelchair, despite being checked in, did not reach him when the flight landed. Shah was also made to wait in the aeroplane when Gujral decided to stay behind with him. The pilot of the flight, Bernd Hoesslin, then stormed out of the cockpit and started hurling abuses at Shah and Gujral. Gujral wrote in her Facebook post that the pilot yelled "You Bloody Indian", and mocked Shah for his disability while she was trying to "explain the situation".
Her post read, "Racism in my own country is bad but discrimination against the physically challenged is so inhumane, barbaric and atrocious. An extremely appalling, sad and grievous experience! A complaint was lodged on April 4 at the Sahara International Airport police station." She also mentioned in one of the comments on her post that on April 5 she had filed a non-cognisable complaint because the police had refused to file an FIR.
On Wednesday, Jet Airways said it has given a written apology to the guests with whom the Jet pilot allegedly misbehaved. "Jet Airways takes a serious view of such incidents. Jet Airways will take corrective action as per company policy," the airlines said.
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