Police begin enquiry into mid-air scuffle; Air India sets up panel

Delhi police has initiated an enquiry into the incident of a mid-air scuffle allegedly between pilots and some crew members of an Air India (AI) flight after registering a case on a complaint by a stewardess.

A senior police official today said that the case has been registered under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) dealing with molestation, hurt and common intention. He confirmed that the police would also take the version of the accused before initiating further proceedings in the case.

The incident, which occurred early yesterday when the flight IC-884 was cruising over Pakistan territory, is understood to have originated in verbal exchanges between the two sides during the pre-flight briefing session ahead of take-off from Sharjah, airline sources said. The Airbus A-320 was carrying 106 passengers and seven crew members, and had reached Lucknow at 0600 hours yesterday when the matter was reported.

The co-pilot and a flight purser, Amit Khanna, allegedly received minor injuries in the exchange of blows in the incident which occurred around 0430 hours when the flight was over Pakistan.

Meanwhile, a three-member probe panel has been set up by AI to conduct a separate enquiry into the incident in the Sharjah-Lucknow-Delhi flight. While a stewardess of the flight lodged a complaint against two pilots with the police, the AI enquiry panel is in the process of questioning the pilots and the crew, including a flight engineer and other staff on duty.

An airline spokesman claimed that at no point of time did any of the two pilots, Commander Ranbeer Arora and Capt Aditya Chopra, come out of the cockpit.

Denying some reports to this effect, he said, "There was never an instance of no pilot being present in the cockpit. The Commander of the flight was in his seat throughout the flight and never left it. Thus, there was no question of flight safety being compromised. This could also be corroborated by the recordings of the Cockpit Voice Recorder (or the black box)."

Describing the incident as "a clear case of indiscipline", the spokesperson said the AI management would take stringent action on the basis of the enquiry report against whoever was found guilty.

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 IPC.

Claims and counter-claims were made by both sides which were being investigated by the airline probe panel.