Bouncers on Airlines?
A cartoon by John Gracias
January 10, 2023
The unruly behavior of a passenger, in the business class cabin of an Air India flight, has, not surprisingly, gotten media attention around the globe. During a flight from New York to Delhi, Shankar Mishra, who was apparently drunk, is said to have urinated on a 72-year-old fellow woman passenger. "My clothes, shoes and bag were completely soaked in urine," the woman wrote in her complaint the next day to N. Chandrasekaran, head of Tata Sons, which owns the Mumbai based airline. Initially, the crew did not give the woman another seat, according to news reports.
The incident occured on November 26 but was made public only last week, six weeks later, after the woman pressed Air India to file a police complaint against Mishra.
At first, Mishra was banned from flying on Air India for one month. After the news broke, Mahua Moitra, a member of the opposition in the Indian parliament, tweeted that she was a “bit confused” about the operations of India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation. The comedian Kunal Kamra, Moitra added, “got 6 month ban for questioning co-passenger but another man who pee’d on AI (Air India) co-flyer gets 30 day ban. Kunal… maybe change tack next time? Clearly more is less.”
Last week, Mishra, who is based in Bangalore, was fired by his employer Wells Fargo. He was arrested, including on charges of sexual harrassment.
In January 2022, Mumbai based conglomerate Tata Sons completed its purchase of Air India from the Indian government, paying $2.7 billion and assuming debt. Air India is India’s major international airline.
ABOUT JOHN GRACIAS
John is inspired by the works of Gary Larson, Michael Lunig, Kliban, Ed Mclachlan, and also underground comic artists like Crumb, Gilbert Shelton and Art Spiegelman.
Based in Bangalore, John retired as a ship captain for a Kuwaiti company which transports live sheep and cattle from Australia to the Middle East.
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