India Announces No-Fly List for Unruly Airline Passengers

New Delhi (Sputnik) — Under the new rules, a passenger can be put on the no-fly list for two years or more for his or her unruly behavior. The list is not mandatory for all airlines, but they can adopt it if they wanted.

It maybe recalled that Ravindra Gaikwad, a member of Parliament from a regional party, had been involved in an incident of misbehavior in a flight.

"India will become the first country to frame a National No-Fly List related to aviation security as other countries have No-Fly List for "safety-related issues" at present," Jayant Sinha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation, said.

The guidelines proposed three levels of ban on unruly passengers — three months for disruptive behavior such as physical gestures, six months for physically abusive behavior such as pushing, kicking and sexual harassment and two years for life threatening behavior. Additionally, the Ministry of Home Affairs can put individuals who are identified as "national security threat" on the proposed National No-Fly List.

"The punishment of suspension for unruly behavior applies to domestic carriers. If international carriers want this input, they can use it," RN Choubey, Civil Aviation Secretary, said.

The airlines will maintain a database of such passengers that will form a National No-Fly List of unruly or disruptive passengers. Since last July, there have been 53 incidents of unruly behavior of passengers reported by airlines to the Indian civil aviation ministry.