Unless you have been living under a rock, you would know that the biggest story of the last month in India was a guy urinating on a woman on an Air India flight from JFK airport in New York to the IGI airport in Delhi. On the AI-102 flight, a 34-year-old Shankar Mishra apparently urinated on a 70-year-old woman while under the influence of alcohol.
The incident happened on November 26 on board Air India’s flight AI-102, which departed New York’s JFK Airport. “Shortly after meals were served and lights were dimmed, another passenger walked to my seat, unzipped his pants, relieved himself, and continued to expose me to his private parts”, the woman complained.
Even though the incident happened on 26 November, and the woman complained immediately to the crew of Air India, it didn’t come to light till January 2023. Once the news of the incident became public, the media soon tracked the culprit. It was Shankar Mishra, a 34-year-old vice president for the Indian chapter of Wells Fargo, the American financial services company.
Since the news became public, Delhi Police registered an FIR against Mishra, arrested him, and he is currently in judicial custody. Mishra has also been sacked from his high-profile and definitely high-paying job at Wells Fargo. With the extensive media coverage he has received, we can be reasonably certain that his career in financial services is over. However, he wasn’t the only one in the wrong during the incident.
Air India crew on-board the flight were made aware of this incident by the woman immediately, however, as per reports, they practically did nothing. In fact, the crew didn’t even change the woman’s seat even though there were several vacant seats on the plane. The Air India crew made the woman sit in a urine-soaked seat even after all that humiliation.
The incident took place in Business Class on the flight, and since the vacant seats were in First Class, the cabin crew refused to oblige the woman. As per the statement, the cabin crew told her that the Captain vetoed her move to First Class. Once the woman refused to sit in the urine-soaked seat, she was moved to a steward’s seat, which is highly uncomfortable for any length of time.
Not only this, the Air India crew even made the woman face the man who exposed his genitals to her and urinated on her. The man supposedly apologised to her and the cabin crew brought them face to face for this. In the face of begging and tears from Shankar Mishra, the woman agreed not to file a complaint in her shaken state.
Air India crew promised her good treatment upon landing and assist her in every way. However, as per the woman’s complaint, she was pretty much on her own once she left the aircraft. Disturbed with the overall experience, she expected some sort of reimbursement from Air India for her overall traumatic experience, but that never came.
So, to summarise, the Air India crew let someone urinate on a fellow passenger mid-flight, refused to give her another seat even though there were vacant seats in First Class, forced the woman to face the man who assaulted her, refused to provide her any compensation, and left her alone after landing at the airport despite promising all assistance.
While the culprit Shankar Mishra is paying for his crime, why is Air India getting away scot-free with a cursory apology from their CEO?