What Happened Before a Man Slapped the Pilot on an IndiGo Flight? Passenger Shares the Story

A person who was on a Delhi-Goa IndiGo flight shared what happened when a passenger slapped the captain due to a long delay. Speaking on his X account, Sanal Vij mentioned that he doesn’t agree with violence, but he feels IndiGo used the incident to cover up their own mistakes and mismanagement. According to him, flight 6E2175 was supposed to leave at 7:40 AM but ended up taking off at 5:35 PM because of several delays.

As a fellow passenger, I want to tell you about what happened during the incident. Before I share the details, it’s important to say that I don’t support violence. My goal is to talk about what I went through and explain what happened.

The boarding started at around 12:20 PM, which was 5 hours later than planned due to bad weather. There were about 186 passengers, including babies, kids, and older people. Even though we finished boarding by around 12:40 PM, the flight doors stayed open until 2:50 PM. The ground staff said the delay was because the air traffic control (ATC) hadn’t given clearance due to congestion.

He explained that at 1:30 PM, the pilot said we were waiting for a crew member and the flight would take off soon. However, it became clear that the information from the ground staff and crew was not accurate, according to Mr. Vij.

He accused the flight crew of acting unprofessionally and having long talks with ground staff. Mr. Vij also said that when elderly passengers asked for water, their requests were ignored because the crew was busy talking.

A Man got arrested for slapping the captain of an IndiGo flight

Sahil Kataria, the person who attacked the flight captain, was arrested yesterday and was released on bail shortly after. In a video recorded during the Delhi to Goa flight on Sunday, the 28-year-old was shown rushing at Anup Kumar, the co-captain, and hitting him.

He can be heard yelling at the pilot, “Chalana hai chala, nahi chalana mat chala, khol gate (Fly if you want to; otherwise, open the door),” before being pulled away by another passenger.

IndiGo released an official statement saying that the passenger who caused trouble had been labeled as “unruly.” The airline is thinking about putting him on the no-fly list.

“On January 14, 2024, a customer assaulted our first officer during the announcement of a flight delay. As per protocol, the customer was declared unruly and handed over to the local law enforcement agencies. This incident is being referred to the independent internal committee for appropriate action and inclusion of the customer on the ‘no-fly list’ as laid down in regulatory guidelines. The safety and security of our customers and crew are of paramount importance, and we maintain a zero-tolerance policy towards any such unacceptable behavior.”, they mentioned.