Video of man smoking inside aircraft; SpiceJet said action initiated

New Delhi: In response to a social media video showing a customer smoking inside a SpiceJet plane, the airline said on Thursday that the incident was looked into and the appropriate steps were taken.

In February of this year, the airline placed the passenger on a No Flying list for 15 days, according to a SpiceJet representative.

"The matter had been investigated thoroughly in January 2022 when the video was brought to our notice and a complaint had been filed by the airline with the Udyog Vihar police station in Gurugram. The video, the investigation had revealed, was shot on January 20 while passengers were boarding the flight SG 706 scheduled to operate from Dubai to Delhi," said a SpiceJet spokesperson.

The airline said that the said passenger and his co-passengers shot the video on the 21st row when the cabin crew were occupied with completing the onboarding procedure.

"None of the passengers or crew was aware of the act. The matter came to the airline's notice on January 24 through social media posts," it added.

The matter was referred to the Internal Committee constituted as per the provisions of Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) on the handling of unruly passengers (not consisting of any SpiceJet employee). They said the passenger was put on a no-flying list by the airline for 15 days in February.

Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Union Minister for Civil Aviation, ordered the relevant authorities to investigate a person who violated the regulations by lighting a cigarette and smoking on an aircraft on Thursday. Responding to a video on Twitter, Scindia said: "Investigating it. There will be no tolerance towards such hazardous behaviour."

With inputs from IANS