Train staff in etiquette, DGCA directs GoAir after pilot tells passenger to 'bugger off'

After a pilot on a GoAir plane told a passenger with a genuine complaint to “bugger off”, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has slapped the airline with a show cause notice and even asked the airline to train its crew in passenger etiquette, according to Mumbai Mirror. [caption id=“attachment_2232588” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] DGCA told Go Air to teach its crew some manners. Reuters[/caption] This move by the DGCA comes after Sajan Raj Kurup, a passenger on a Mumbai-Srinagar flight, claimed that the commander of the flight forgot where the aircraft was flying to while making a public announcement to the passengers. Kurup said that the announcement of Captain Vikram Inamdar, who was commanding the flight, “sounded something like, ’ladies and gentlemen, today our flight to… Where are we flying? (off mic) Oh yes, Srinagar… will take two hours…’ All the passengers around me were rolling their eyes too,” according to another Mumbai Mirror report. After the worried passenger voiced his concerns about the same, the pilot reportedly asked him to ‘bugger off.’ “Upon landing, the pilot stormed out of the cockpit and in a fit of rage publicly insulted me and asked me to shut up and leave. I quote him: ‘Don’t teach me, keep your stupid doubts and questions to yourself and bugger off’,” the report quoted Kurup as saying. The DGCA also told the airline that it had failed to incorporate the DGCA’s directives for the past three years, according to Hindustan Times. Just a day after the GoAir incident, on 28 April, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Mahesh Sharma informed the Rajya Sabha that domestic carriers, including Jet Airways and Air India, received 132 complaints of staff misbehaviour in the first two months of this year. Sharma further said that private carrier Jet Airways and its no-frills arm Jet Lite saw 32 complaints of staff misbehaviour in January while Air India received 21 such complaints during the same period. Other airlines that received complaints of staff misbehaviour in January were SpiceJet nine, Go Air five, IndiGo two and Air Costa one, according to figures provided by the Minister in his written reply. In February, Jet Airways and Jet Lite together received 27 complaints of staff misbehaviour while Air India saw 15 such complaints. During that month, SpiceJet received 11 such complaints, IndiGo five, Go Air three and Air Costa one. (With inputs from PTI)