The Directorate General of Civil Aviation has taken a stern view of singer Sonu Nigam being allowed to croon on the in-flight announcement system of a Jodhpur-Mumbai flight last month. The regulatory body pushed the airline to ground the five flight attendants who allowed the impromptu concert on board the chartered flight.

According to The Times of India, all the passengers on the flight knew each other, and asked Nigam to sing. He then got on to the announcement system and obliged with two songs. After videos of the act were circulated on social media, the DGCA got involved, asking Jet to make sure that such misuse of the announcement system not be allowed in the future. Jet confirmed that all the crew on board the flight have been suspended and will be given “corrective training”.

The DGCA cited the following violations:

  1. The personal announcement system was used for singing a song, which was a violation of procedures.
  2. The forward galley was unattended.
  3. Number of passengers standing in the aisle area.
  4. The aircraft was descending while the incident occurred.
  5. Passengers could have been hurt in case of weather turbulence.
  6. The crew wasn't aware of the cabin activity.

The singer, when told that the staff had been suspended, said, "This act of lack of common sense, according to me, is real intolerance," NDTV reported. Nigam claimed that no announcements needed to be made when he was singing and that pilots and flight attendants in other countries sometimes encourage similar light moments to keep passengers happy.