Air India flight crew in mid-air punch-up

Perhaps a patch of turbulence on your next flight doesn't merit a complaint after all. Consider the ordeal passengers went through on an Air India flight early Saturday when one of the plane's pilots and a cabin crew member spilled out of the cockpit trading punches, a scrap some reports say left the cockpit unmanned for a brief period. While Air India denies the cockpit was ever unmanned and insists passenger safety was never compromised, India has been spellbound by the incident since news broke of the mid-air fracas on flight IC-844.

The fight started at about 4 a.m. local time, just after the pilots informed the 106 Delhi-bound passengers they were flying over Pakistan. Moments later, one of the pilots allegedly groped a female flight attendant after she resisted his advances.
The pilot then threw her out of the cockpit, setting the stage for a fight with a male flight attendant that wound up in the passenger cabin. The flight, which originated in the United Arab Emirates, landed safely in Lucknow, India, after the pilots threatened to land in Karachi, Pakistan.

Air India, which just suffered a morale-sapping month, said it has grounded the pilots and crew members involved and has started an inquiry. Komal Singh, a 24-year-old female flight attendant, says flight commander Ranbeer Arora was upset over her takeoff announcement and summoned her to the cockpit. Both Arora and co-pilot Aditya Chopra chastised her. Singh was made to feel "uncomfortable as a woman," media reports say.

Singh told flight purser Amit Khanna what had happened and the two returned to the cockpit. That's when the pilots pushed Singh out, allegedly injuring her, and setting the stage for the dust-up between purser and pilot. According to local media reports, Arora has said he merely spoke to Singh about routine takeoff procedures.
Moments later, Arora alleges, Khanna started beating on the cockpit door. After the brawl and the stop in Lucknow, Singh and Khanna continued on the flight to Delhi. As Air India moves forward with its internal investigation and police decide whether to pursue a criminal case, prominent national organizations are jumping into the fray.

Shailendra Singh, president of the Indian Commercial Pilots' Association, says it's not fair to blame the pilots, who "maintained their cool." "There is a certain hierarchy in the cockpit that has to be followed." The National Commission for Women has also said it will investigate Singh's claim. "She came here and sat with me for six hours. She has filed a complaint with me," commission chair Girija Vyas said Wednesday. "We have written to Air India to inquire into the matter and also informed them about the Supreme Court guidelines on sexual harassment at the workplace."