Team News Riveting
Bengaluru, May 17
A first-time flier was arrested from Bengaluru airport after being caught smoking bidi mid-air in Akasa flight from Ahmedabad.
The passenger, Praveen Kumar, was charged with endangering the lives of fellow passengers. Kumar had boarded the plane at Ahmedabad for Bengaluru and was caught smoking in the lavatory by the cabin crew.
Officials said that the flight attendants quickly swung into action and detained him soon after noticing the incident. After the flight landed in Kempegowda International Airport, he was handed over to the police.
Kumar, who is 56, told the police that he was flying for the first time and was unaware of the aviation rules. He thought that this would be similar to smoking in a train washroom – something he professed to doing regularly.
As per guidelines given in The Aircraft Rules of 1937, smoking – including the use of e-cigarettes – is prohibited within flights in India. In recent days however, a series of violations have been reported across the country.
Both Indigo and Air India had experienced such incidents in the recent past. In early March, a 24-year-old woman passenger was arrested for smoking in the lavatory of a Bengaluru-bound IndiGo flight. The cabin crew had discovered the cigarette in the dustbin and poured water to douse it.
Earlier, Air India officials found a passenger smoking inside the washroom of a Delhi-bound flight. The cabin crew had sensed the smoke emanating from the washroom even as it triggered the fire alarm.
