Government declares new rules to tackle unruly behaviour on flights - (08 Sep 2017)

Civil

In order to ensure safety on board, The Ministry of Civil Aviation unveiled rules to tackle unruly behaviour by passengers. Rules will be effective from 8th September, 2017. Rules are formulating with main focus on ensuring on board safety and safeguarding the interest of passengers, cabin crew and the airlines. The DGCA, a governmental regulatory body for civil aviation has revised the relevant Sections of the Civil Aviation Requirement ( CAR Section 3, Series M, Part Vl on "Handling of Unruly Passengers ) to bring in a deterrent for passengers who engage in unruly behaviour on board aircrafts. The revision has been done in accordance with the provisions of Tokyo Convention 1963. The Minister for Civil Aviation said that, the new rules will allow for the formation of a national, No Fly List of such unruly passengers and that, promulgation of the No - Fly List in India is unique and first-of-its-kind in the world.

The revised CAR will be applicable for all Indian operators engaged in scheduled and non-scheduled air transport services, both domestic and international carriage of passengers. Further, Rules would also be applicable to foreign carriers subject to compliance of Tokyo Convention 1963. As per new revised CAR, three categories of unruly behavior are defined- Level 1 refers to behaviour that is verbally unruly, and calls for debarment upto 3 months; Level 2 indicates physical unruliness and can lead to the passenger being debarred from flying for upto 6 months and Level 3 indicates life-threatening behaviour where the debarment would be for a minimum of 2 years.

Passengers shall be made aware through display of “Conditions of Carriage” at prominent locations in the airport terminal building. Further, The passenger shall also be made aware that in case his/her behaviour falls into one of the following categories, he/she is likely to be breaking the law and could be arrested on arrival at destination, or at any other airport where the aircraft commander may choose to land. Internal Committee shall be constituted by the airline for referring complaint of unruly behaviour and decide the matter within a period of 30 days and decide duration for which the unruly passenger will be banned from flying. Further, it consists of the Retired District & Session Judge as Chairman; A representative from a different scheduled Airline as Member; Representative from a passengers association or consumer association or retired officer of Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum as Member. During pendency of matter before Internal Committee, the concerned airline may ban such unruly passenger from flying for a period not exceeding a 30 days. The decision of the Internal Committee shall be binding on the airline concerned. The airlines shall maintain a database of all unruly passengers (after decision by the Internal Committee) and inform the same to DGCA/other airlines. Appellate Committee would be constituted and aggrieved persons (other than those identified as security threat by MHA) may appeal within 60 days from the date of issue of order. Formulation of new rules will play significant role in curbing unruly behaviour on flights as there has been increase in such incidents causing problems to crew members and passengers on board.

Tags : RULES UNRULY BEHAVIOUR FLIGHTS