Not easy to ban unruly passengers on flights

After the storm over Shiv Sena MP Ravindra Gaikwad assaulting a senior Air India staff member, there is relative calm in the Indian aviation sector. During the Gaikwad incident last week, a number of issues were raised when in a show of solidarity the domestic airlines decided to work together and Air India and IndiGo refused to let Gaikwad fly with them.

A significant issue that was mooted was drawing up a no-fly list of people who have resorted to unruly behaviour on flights.

There is no denying the fact that unruly passengers on a flight are a serious matter that needs to be dealt with as it has the potential to put at risk the safety of others flying with them.

Loosely speaking, unruly passenger incidents include violence against crew and other passengers, harassment, verbal abuse, smoking, failure to follow safety instructions, and other forms of riotous behaviour.

This is a worldwide problem, and it’s only getting worse. In a survey released in December 2016, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) collected 49,084 reports from airlines concerning unruly passengers between 2007 and 2015. Air India and Jet Airways are IATA members. In 2015, the rate was one unruly incident for every 1,205 flights and in 2014 it was one incident for every 1,282 flights.

The majority of reports were Level 1 incidents: that is, they are verbal in nature and can usually be dealt with successfully by crew using de-escalation training.

The survey also shows that 53 per cent of IATA members surveyed were of the considered opinion that unruly behaviour had increased in the last five years, while physical aggression was one of the top three safety issues that caused concern to cabin crew.

So, is creating a no-fly list the solution?

The Indian aviation industry already seems divided about how this list will be worked out. While some are of the view that if US lawyers have not been able to repeal the no-fly list with their litigious culture, no one can. Others maintain, and perhaps rightly so, that airlines are fed up with this menace and want to do all that they can to stop it. Coming up with a no-fly list seems the best option.

Establishing a no-fly list sounds good in theory, but there is little likelihood of its becoming a reality. For starters, any such list has to be drawn up following certain parameters: who will decide and on what basis whether a person should feature on this list? Will first-time offenders going to be a part of it; will the names of repeat performers be struck from the databases of all domestic airlines?

While it is easy to understand the hue and cry that is raised when a high-profile person misbehaves on a flight, how practical will it be to get unruly common flyers whose numbers are increasing on to this list? Is there going to be a cap on the number of namesor is it going to be open-ended list?

Even if such a list is worked out the final decision on going ahead with implementing it will eventually involve a decision by the Government; this becomes a whole new area with its own pitfalls.

Equally importantly, what will also have to be factored in is whether such a list will stand in a court of law. The situation at the moment is confusing at best. In the recent past a flyer on an IndiGo flight threw a soda bottle on an air hostess, while in another incident a passenger slapped a crew member. In both these cases the airline got the passengers arrested but little is known of what happened after.

This could well be the fate of Gaikwad’s case. A, FIR has been filed against him. Indian law says that a person is innocent unless proven guilty so the FIR does not mean Gaikwad is guilty of the ‘crime’ that he is said to have committed. He could well decide to fight his case in court and, if one may dare say, win. Multiply such incidents and one can imagine the mess that will result.

All this does not mean that a solution is not needed. It is. But putting the cart before the horse is not the way to find it.

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