Everyone knows the feeling of frustration over a flight delay. For one passenger, however, some delays can be too much.
A passenger who was traveling with Indian low-cost carrier IndiGo assaulted a pilot while he was making a delay announcement 13 hours after the flight’s intended departure time.
Flight 6E2175 was scheduled to fly from Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) to Dabolim Airport (GOI) in Goa on January 14, 2024.
However, dense Delhi has been blanketed by dense fog over the past few days, resulting in flight and train delays.
One of the passengers on the flight was Russian-Indian actress Evgenia Belskaia. According to Belskaia, tension had been mounting on the flight because passengers had already waited nine hours at the airport, and waited a further four hours inside the aircraft.
Belskaia was able to capture the incident and posted a video clip on social media.
The video shows the pilot making an announcement using the aircraft PA system. The pilot is flanked by two flight attendants. A meal cart can also be seen positioned in front of the pilot and flight attendants, acting as a barrier from the frustrated passengers.
A passenger in a yellow jumper then makes his way over to the pilot, leaning over the meal cart, and slapping the pilot across the face.
One flight attendant can be seen stopping the passenger from further assaulting the pilot.
Belskaia added in the comments section that the pilot and crew were “not nice” and said that the pilot blamed the passengers for the delay because “they were asking too many questions”.
She also said that passengers were not given food or water during the delay.
A subsequent video was taken and also uploaded to social media, where the passenger can be seen being removed from the flight by police.
The passenger also appears to apologize for his behavior.
Local reports say that the airline is still deliberating whether to place the passenger on a no-fly list.
