Handcuffs for those who misbehave on Air India flights

After two reported cases of molestation in a fortnight by passengers of Air India, the State-run aircraft announced a restrictive measure for unruly flyers, a report by Times of India said on Sunday.

The report said that the airline will keep plastic handcuffs on all its flights to keep a restraint on disorderly passengers in case their behaviour endangers the safety of the aircraft or other flyers.

"We used to carry restrainers only on our international flights but will now have them on both domestic and international flights. All our aircraft will have two pairs of restraining devices," the report quoted Ashwani Lohani, chairperson of AI.

Further Lohani said, "The safety of passengers and aircraft is paramount. We will not compromise with that."

AI's decision comes after a flyer on its Muscat-Delhi flight allegedly molested an air hostess on January 2 and a flyer on its Mumbai-Newark flight reportedly groped a co-passenger on December 21.

The report cited a senior official who said, "Inflight misbehaviour is on the rise in recent times. Our pilots adopt zero tolerance for offences like sexual harassment, both of air hostesses or flyers, and hand over offenders to law enforcing agencies on landing."

However, another cabin crew of AI said that restraining a passenger should be one of the last steps and should be done only if the matter is totally out of control.