New Delhi: Its height of carelessness when meat was served to pure vegeterian Jain pilgrims.
Tempers frayed onboard a Leh-Delhi flight on Saturday afternoon when some Jain pilgrims returning from Sindhu Darshan festival were served non-veg food.
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Top Air India sources confirmed the incident with a quick addition: “The action was taken immediately and we suspended two catering staff of assistant manager rank following the complaint.”
The immediate staff suspension was enacted to stop the bad news from leaving the airport as the fuming pilgrims landed in the Capital. But Mail Today managed to unearth the incident, which left many returning from the festival with bitter memories.
Chaos onboard
Top sources said the incident happened on an Air India chartered flight which took off from Leh airport around noon on Saturday when many passengers belonging to the Jain religious community objected to non-vegetarian food packets being served to them for lunch, despite prior selection of a special “Hindu meal”.
The frustration and anger among passengers soon gained support from others, which resulted in chaos on board.
The 182-seater Air India flight was chartered by about 122 pilgrims who had visited Sindhu Darshan, held from June 23 to June 26, in Ladakh capital city, and they were returning back to New Delhi on Saturday.
The Sindhu Darshan Festival, as the name suggests, is a celebration of River Sindhu, also known as the Indus. It was first started in the October, 1997 and continues to be held every year since then, attracting large number of foreign as well domestic tourists.
The return price for the chartered flight ticket was in the range of Rs 24,000 to Rs 26,000 and it was expected of Air India to serve a special treatment to the passengers, but in real, it turned out to be a big embarrassment for national carrier’s credibility among flyers,” said a senior Air India official, requesting anonymity.
Perhaps the immediate action against errant catering staff is self-indicating. There are about 300 AI flight daily and about 12- 15 public complaints are reported a day.
Currently, there are at least 300 charge-sheets filed by Air India against its own staff for various misconducts, including stealing on board, smuggling, pilferage, dubious tenders and not to miss causing avoidable flight delays.
In the last category, it is mostly onboard crew members who are involved, and about 17 of them were suspended in May alone for causing delays ranging up to three and four hours.
The delays were all reported from International flights to busy and commercially viable Jeddah, Riyadh and Western Sector.
Tempers frayed onboard a Leh-Delhi flight on Saturday afternoon when some Jain pilgrims returning from Sindhu Darshan festival were served non-veg food.
.
Top Air India sources confirmed the incident with a quick addition: “The action was taken immediately and we suspended two catering staff of assistant manager rank following the complaint.”
The immediate staff suspension was enacted to stop the bad news from leaving the airport as the fuming pilgrims landed in the Capital. But Mail Today managed to unearth the incident, which left many returning from the festival with bitter memories.
Chaos onboard
Top sources said the incident happened on an Air India chartered flight which took off from Leh airport around noon on Saturday when many passengers belonging to the Jain religious community objected to non-vegetarian food packets being served to them for lunch, despite prior selection of a special “Hindu meal”.
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| Sindhu Festival, Leh |
The frustration and anger among passengers soon gained support from others, which resulted in chaos on board.
The 182-seater Air India flight was chartered by about 122 pilgrims who had visited Sindhu Darshan, held from June 23 to June 26, in Ladakh capital city, and they were returning back to New Delhi on Saturday.
The Sindhu Darshan Festival, as the name suggests, is a celebration of River Sindhu, also known as the Indus. It was first started in the October, 1997 and continues to be held every year since then, attracting large number of foreign as well domestic tourists.
The return price for the chartered flight ticket was in the range of Rs 24,000 to Rs 26,000 and it was expected of Air India to serve a special treatment to the passengers, but in real, it turned out to be a big embarrassment for national carrier’s credibility among flyers,” said a senior Air India official, requesting anonymity.
Perhaps the immediate action against errant catering staff is self-indicating. There are about 300 AI flight daily and about 12- 15 public complaints are reported a day.
Currently, there are at least 300 charge-sheets filed by Air India against its own staff for various misconducts, including stealing on board, smuggling, pilferage, dubious tenders and not to miss causing avoidable flight delays.
In the last category, it is mostly onboard crew members who are involved, and about 17 of them were suspended in May alone for causing delays ranging up to three and four hours.
The delays were all reported from International flights to busy and commercially viable Jeddah, Riyadh and Western Sector.
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