The Indian government released proposed draft rules for a national ‘no-fly list’ that will hand out lengthy bans to unruly passengers.
Civil Aviation Minster Ashok Gajapathi Raju said the government will seek comments during a public consultation period of one month, and aims to have the draft guidelines ready by the end of June 2017.
Under the plan, unruly behaviour will be categorised in three levels, with a sliding scale to the flying ban depending on the severity of the incident.
"Level 1 represents unruly behaviour such as verbal harassment, physical gestures. Level 2 includes physically unruly behaviour such as pushing, kicking and inappropriately touching," said aviation secretary R.N. Choubey.
Level 3 is reserved for the most serious ‘life threatening’ actions by passengers including damage to aircraft operating system and physical violence.
Choubey said that for level 1 offences, unruly passengers would be suspended for three months, for level 2 suspension would for six months and for level 3 it could be two years or more.
The proposal comes after weeks of pressure for the government to act after MP Ravindra Gaikwad’s meltdown on an Air India flight when he violently assaulted an airline employee.
Airline across the country instigated a flying ban which was eventually overturned after pressure from the government.
Gaikwad also wants to see rules strengthened over the conduct of flight crew.
"There should be similar framework and set of rules for the airline crew as well on how to treat and address the requirements of passengers," the MP said.
