Drunk Airline Passenger Arrested After Blocking Check-In Desk, Abusing Ground Staff

A drunken passenger was arrested after creating a ruckus and abusing airline ground staff in the Indian city of Kolkata on Tuesday.

Amitava Ganguly blocked a check-in desk for 20 minutes, and when he was asked to move to another counter as he was booked on a different airline, he started verbally abusing the ground staff. Following this, he was taken into custody after the airline filed a complaint.

Ganguly, a middle-aged man, was returning to New Delhi from Kolkata. The incident unfolded after Ganguly misplaced his ticket after displaying it at the terminal entrance. He then reached the Jet Airways airline’s counter and demanded a boarding pass. When asked to furnish the travel documents, the man patted his pocket and opened his bag to take out clothes and toiletries.

When he found the ticket and handed it over, the staff discovered he was booked on SpiceJet airlines. However, when the lady staff member asked Ganguly to move to the SpiceJet counter, he started verbally abusing her.

The airline proceeded to lodge a police complaint after the man refused to calm down or stop shouting.

Airport officials said Ganguly was under the influence of alcohol and had walked unsteadily and slurred.

“The passenger claimed the ground staff had been harassing him and now wanted him to shift to another counter. He didn’t seem to understand that it was he who had come to the wrong airline counter and the Jet Airways staff did not have any inkling of the mistake till he produced the ticket,” an airport official said, local daily the Times Of India reported.

The official, however, said they were upset with the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel’s refusal to intervene in the incident.

“The CISF maintained that it would act only if the passenger assaulted someone or the airline submitted a written complaint. Elsewhere, if a passenger creates a commotion or becomes a public nuisance, the security restrains him or her till the time the person calms down or is in senses,” an airport official said.

In a similar incident, CCTV footage from airport in Qingdaoa, China, released earlier this week showed a passenger hitting an airline staff member in the face with his mobile phone at the check-in counter after learning his flight was cancelled. The man was given a five-day detention and was also blacklisted by the unnamed Chinese airline.

The flight was canceled due to adverse weather conditions. Despite the airline arranging accommodation for the man and his family, and offering him compensation, he returned to the airport the following day and asked the employees if he could board an earlier flight. When informed the flights were full, the man got agitated. CCTV footage showed the unidentified person pointing a finger at the staff member and then suddenly hitting him across the face with his mobile phone.