India’s Supreme Court has instructed aviation regulator officials to come up with new, stricter guidelines to deal with unruly passenger behavior.
The regulator says there is a need for ‘something creative’ to better handle unruly passenger incidents especially those that involved intoxicated fliers.
The Supreme Court judges were hearing a plea from an elderly woman who was allegedly urinated on by a drunk passenger on an Air India flight.
The woman had taken the case to the highest court to mandate airline rules regarding unruly behavior like this.
She wants proper standard operating procedures to deal with such situations.
The judges called on the Solicitor General alongside the regulator to review and update guidelines to meet international standards.
The incident was just one of a spate of similar incidents over several weeks during long haul flights.
One of the judges noted a recent personal experience.
“Two passengers were drunk. One went to the washroom and slept off. The other one who was outside had a bag to vomit. The crew was all women and for about 30 minutes no one could open the door,” Justice Viswanathan said.
