IndiGo offloads 4 youth for ‘erratic behaviour’

IndiGo offloaded four Kashmiri youths reportedly for “erratic behaviour” of one of them from a Delhi-bound flight on Thursday evening.

Those offloaded from the Patna-Delhi IndiGo flight were identified as Mukhtar Ahmed Gani, his elder brother Javed Ahmed Gani and friends Md Munib Wali and Haroon Rashid. They were released later in the evening after preliminary screening.

A passenger, requesting anonymity, said he initially saw the youths squabbling in the security hold area, trying to coax a reluctant Mukhtar to board the flight.

“I later heard the youth say that he will go and sit in the cockpit of the aircraft. His behaviour was erratic. It was then that I alerted the airline staff, who immediately offloaded all the four youths,” he said.

Mukhtar, 16, was earlier turned out of the 11, Bihar Batallion, NCC National Integration Camp, which he came to attend in Patna.

Sources said the commanding officer of the camp had reportedly found the youth behaving in an erratic manner on November 14. He immediately contacted Mukhtar’s family in Jammu and asked them to take him back. Javed, along with his other two friends, had come to take Mukhtar back when IndiGo offloaded them.

NCC commanding officer Col. Dharmendra refused to talk to HT over phone about the incident involving Mukhtar.

Security agencies, however, ruled out any terror angle. They said the youth was depressed and in unsound mental condition. He was blabbering consistently, prompting the airlines to declare him “unfit to fly”. Efforts to contact the CISF proved futile.

In a statement on Friday, IndiGo acknowledged the incident but said passenger’s safety was not compromised. It did not mention anything about a passenger alerting the airline staff.

“Mukhtar Ahmad (accompanied by three family members), who was scheduled to travel to Delhi from Patna, was offloaded on grounds of unusual behaviour on November 16. Mukhtar’s brother informed the staff on board about his behaviour and attributed it to some disorder. Empathising with Ahmad’s state, the staff explained the safety protocols to Ahmad’s brother and asked them to deplane,” the IndiGo statement said.

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