Is suspension of personnel the only punishment that should be meted out in the AI case? What about passenger safety when the crew was busy fighting - will that still remain a priority for the crew?

Air India has suspended flight commander Ranbir Arora and flight purser Amit Khanna after an enquiry panel held them guilty of playing a major role in the mid-air scuffle that led an air hostess of the flight to lodge a molestation case with the police.

While the "attitude" of the flight purser led to the altercation, which later blew up into a scuffle, the behaviour of the flight's commander, Arora, who pushed the air hostess out of the cockpit, was "objectionable", the probe panel found.

The enquiry also concluded that at no point of time did the two pilots leave the cockpit unmanned and endanger flight safety, the spokesperson said.

The incident occurred in the cockpit of flight IC-884 on Saturday and is understood to have started after the verbal exchanges during the pre-flight briefing session ahead of take-off from Sharjah.

Is suspension of personnel the only punishment that should be meted out in the AI case? What about passenger safety when the crew was busy fighting - will that still remain a priority for the crew?