Flight scuffle: Pilots, airhostess grounded

Air India has grounded two pilots and an airhostess who were reportedly involved in a mid-air scuffle on its IC-884 Sharjah-Lucknow-Delhi flight when the aircraft was in Pakistani airspace on Saturday.

The airhostess, Komal, 23, has filed a case alleging molestation by the pilots — commander Ranbeer Arora and captain Aditya Chopra — at the Indira Gandhi International Airport police station.

According to the FIR, co-pilot Chopra tried to molest her and when she resisted, the pilots pushed her outside the cockpit leading to a scuffle.

Chopra and a flight purser, Amit Khanna, allegedly received minor injuries in the exchange of blows.

The airline management is conducting a separate probe and taking the charge of molestation seriously, but some insiders believe that the matter has been blown out of proportion.

Airline sources told DNA that the airhostess has been regularly flying on international routes.

According to another version, the scuffle was the result of verbal exchanges between the two sides during the pre-flight briefing in Sharjah.

“The statement of the airhostess has been recorded and investigation is on,” said Satyendera Garg, joint commissioner of police (operations). The case has been registered under sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with intent to outrage her modesty) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.