A 20-year-old woman claims that an off-duty pilot harassed her on a trip from Bengaluru to Pune earlier this month, in a troubling encounter. The college student was coming home after a three-month internship in Bengaluru aboard Akasa Air flight Q when the incident took place on October 1.
According to a Times of India article, the girl said that the airline’s off-duty pilot pushed her to transfer seats, be in close proximity to him, and handed her the alcoholic beverage he was sipping.
According to the little girl’s story, her requests for help from a flight attendant and the airline were unanswered.
In the meanwhile, Akasa Air said that although the airline carried out a thorough investigation into the incident, it was unable to come to a decision because it had trouble getting in touch with the complaint after the alleged occurrence.
However, in a subsequent update to TOI, the girl claimed that while Akasa Air had responded to her social media post, which she then recapped, the airline had not contacted her afterwards.
TRIPPER’S ACCOUNT
The girl said how an off-duty pilot who was wearing his airline ID card approached her and started a discussion before originally offering to help with her bags.
Later, she said, the captain requested her to go to the rear of the aircraft where the crew was stationed via a flight attendant.
“At first, I believed there could be an issue with my checked baggage. I went there and inquired as to the situation. He chuckled and handed me something in a bottle, saying it was booze he was drinking. He kept attempting to talk to me and was making me feel really uncomfortable, so I declined and struggled to go back to my seat, the girl added, according to the TOI story.
The girl further said that the pilot “forced” her to transfer to a seat next to where he was sat in the 16th row and had her bags moved. She went to the crew for help since she was becoming more and more uncomfortable, but they only “giggled as if they approved their coworker’s advances toward me.”
Even after the plane touched down in Pune, where he begged the girl to join him while he was there and coerced her into giving him her phone number, the pilot’s disorderly conduct persisted.
“I complained to Akasa Air by detailing the occurrence on its feedback form. I also posted about my concern on social media, but no one responded favorably. Since my terrible encounter 15 days ago, nothing has changed, the girl added.
THE STATAMENT OF AKASA AIR
According to the story, an Akasa Air spokeswoman said that the passenger’s calls to the airline’s social media staff remained unanswered.
Our social media staff tried to give the passenger a DM (direct message) as soon as they were made aware of the post, but her X account is private. The group chose to reply by remark as a result. Our head of customer experience then made two calls to the passenger in an effort to follow through on our promise to handle the criticism right away. The head of our compliance team was notified when the phone went unanswered in accordance with policy, the airline stated.
