A doctor from Bengaluru was asked to get off an IndiGo flight at the Lucknow airport on Tuesday after he complained about mosquitoes in the cabin and allegedly abused the crew.
The airline said they offloaded Saurabh Rai as he used the word “hijack”, NDTV reported. According to the airline, Rai was to fly from Lucknow to Bengaluru, but soon after he boarded the flight, he complained about mosquitoes on board.
“Before the cabin crew could address his concerns, he became aggressive and used threatening language,” NDTV reported, quoting an official statement from the airline. When the crew shut the aircraft exits, Rai tried to “instigate other passengers to damage the aircraft and used words such as hijack”, the statement said.
Rai, however, claimed that the IndiGo staff manhandled him, The Times of India reported. “The crew members called me a terrorist and said I was a threat to other passengers,” he said in a video that he shared on social media.
Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Prabhu said he has ordered an inquiry into the incident.
In 2017, IndiGo was criticised after a video of its ground staff assaulting a 53-year-old passenger at the New Delhi airport was circulated.
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