Passenger arrested for molesting Air Vistara cabin crew member on Lucknow-Delhi flight

A 62-year-old passenger on board a Lucknow-Delhi Air Vistara flight has been arrested for allegedly molesting a cabin crew member.

The incident took place when the flight landed at Terminal 3 of New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport and the passengers were being deplaned, reported ANI.

The passenger is said to have touched the air hostess inappropriately more than once, after which she complained about the incident to her seniors. "The air hostess, who hails from Meghalaya, was touched inappropriately by the accused more than once. She reported the matter to her seniors and some passengers also saw this disgraceful act," the Times of India quoted a source as saying.

Air Vistara has now spoken on the incident and said that an FIR has been filed and an investigation is under way. 

Air Vistara is now reportedly also considering putting the passenger on its no-fly list and will decide on the matter after the investigation is concluded. 

The airline had also made news when Bollywood actress Zaira Wasim accused a co-passenger of molesting her on board a flight from New Delhi to Mumbai in December 2017.

The actress had said that a man seated behind her was rubbing his foot against her back and neck while she was half asleep. She then took to Instagram to talk about the incident, and also posted an image of the man's foot.

"So, I just landed and you know the whole irony of this is that the guy... this is not done at all. This is not the way, this is not a girl should be made to feel because this is terrible," he said in an Instagram live video.

"Is this how they are doing to take care of girls? No one will help us if we don't decide to help ourselves. This is the worst thing."

After the incident made national news, Air Vistara had released a statement and said that Wasim had yelled at the co-flyer, but did not complain to the crew.

The Tata-owned airline said that the actress "had not brought the incident to notice of the crew till the flight commenced descent," according to ANI. "After landing the crew inquired about the incident and asked Zaira and her mother if they want to file a complaint but they denied," Vistara sources added.

In the last few months, there have been several incidents of mid-air altercations as well, be it between passengers or crew members. Last week, an Air India cabin supervisor hade slapped a flight attendant on board a Delhi-Frankfurt flight. 

Flight AI 121 took off from the Indira Gandhi International Airport at around 2.20 pm. After being airborne for about an hour, the cabin supervisor and the flight attendant are said to have had an argument over a non-vegetarian meal served to a vegetarian passenger.

"A flight attendant mistakenly served a business-class passenger non-vegetarian meal instead of a vegetarian one. The passenger, who was seated on 1D, saw it was the wrong meal and pointed it out to the cabin supervisor who happened to be around," a source told The Times of India.

The supervisor is said to have lashed out at the attendant and slapped her. "It was a tight slap right across her face. The business-class passengers would have heard it," the source added.