Man held for smoking on board Doha-Mumbai IndiGo flight

A 24-year-old Doha-Mumbai IndiGo flight passenger was arrested by the Sahar police and later granted bail for being caught red-handed while smoking inside the aircraft mid-air which triggered panic among other passengers. 

The crew members got an alert beep inside their cabin and immediately they opened the door so the smoke could be cleared from the flight. 

After landing in Mumbai international airport on early hours of Sunday, the passenger Jessi T Jerome was handed over to Sahar Police and was granted bail by the Bandra court.

Jerome, a resident of Kollam city in Kerela was working in Doha as a forklift operator with a private company since a year and he was coming back to India from a connecting flight from Mumbai to Thiruvananthapuram.

When it was found that Jerome was secretly smoking inside the flight, the fire alarms started ringing and the crew then alerted the flight captain about the situation. 

Jerome was later briefed about smoking rules and policies followed by aviation department. The plane first landed at Goa and the matter was brought to the notice of local police station.

Senior police inspector of Sahar police station, Shashikant Mane said, "The crew member brought him to the police station and after recording his statement, the passenger was arrested under section 336 (Act 
endangering life or personal safety of others) of IPC and section 25 (Smoking in aircraft) of The Aircraft Rules, the matter is being investigated further."