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ShareAI flight delayed by 3 hrs after man stuffs underwear, cellphone in loo
MUMBAI: An AI plane was delayed for over three hours on Thursday after an allegedly intoxicated passenger decided to get rid off his briefs in the plane loo.
Air India's flight 191, scheduled for takeoff at 7.45 am, took off only at 11.05 am after Mark Mahendra Sharma (31), a non-resident Indian from the US, sparked panic by visiting the loo several times during takeoff, though airline rules disallow it. Passengers and the crew got suspicious about his erratic behaviour. Sharma was offloaded and handed over to the Sahar police.
According to an AI official, all the 156 passengers were seated with their seat belts on and the aircraft had started taxiing toward the runaway. "That's when Sharma got up and went to the toilet," said the AI official. When the seat belt sign is on, no passenger or crew can visit the toilet. "However, Sharma frequented the toilet many times, making passengers and the crew suspicious," he added.
During one of his visits, Sharma removed his underwear and left it in the toilet."In a statement by the air-hostess, she told us that she asked him to take it away," said a Sahar police station official. Sharma obliged, but minutes later he returned and stuffed the underwear into the commode."While doing this, one of his two mobiles fell in too," said the police official.
When the airhostess checked inside the toilet again, she saw the mobile and panicked."She thought the mobile phone was some kind of explosive gadget and reported the matter to the captain," said the AI source."The captain thought it would be risky to continue the flight and requested air traffic control to abort take-off," he added.
Sharma was then offloaded by AI security guards who handed him over to the central industrial security force (CISF) officials. The CISF handed over Sharma's custody to the Sahar police."We have sent him for medical examination and will charge him under the appropriate section after conducting an inquiry," said Dilip Patil, senior police inspector, Sahar police station.
When contacted, AI spokesperson Jitendra Bhargava said the passenger kept going to the loo, and when the crew asked him to remain seated, he disobeyed them and started shouting. Hence, the captain decided to abort take-off and the passenger was disembarked. "There was a delay of two and a half hours and the flight left with the passengers around 11am," Bhargava said.
On September 10, Nigerian passenger Mmaritea Khamis Hassan came drunk to terminal 2B of Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport (CSIA). He was to catch an Ethiopian Airlines ET 610 Mumbai-Adisababa-Harare flight. "When the passenger came to collect the boarding pass he looked drunk and was not in his senses," says an airport official. "Though he did not create any nuisance we did not want to take any risk and consulted the airport doctors," he added
On August 26, a British national, Mark Stuart, was off-loaded by FinAir as he was in an inebriated state. After being offloaded, Stuart allegedly created a scene at the airport by picking up a fight with the CISF staff. He also pelted stones at vehicles outside the airport
