Three Air India crew members suspended for allowing fellow employee to sleep on flight's floor
The employee had told them he would use the jump seat, meant for staff, on the New York-bound aircraft.
Air India on Thurday suspended three employees after they allowed a fellow staff member to sleep on the flight's floor, PTI reported. Officials said passengers noticed the person sleeping in the galley of the New-York-bound flight AI-102 last week, and alerted the airline's chairperson and managing director, Ashwani Lohani.
The carrier provides a restricted amount of free passes for its employees, subject to seat availability. An official said, "In this case the aircraft had a full load, but the staffer managed to board the flight by telling them that he would not mind travelling on the jump seat, which are meant for crew rest," the news agency reported.
An official from the office of the Director General of Civil Aviation told the news agency that a probe into the matter was underway. The official said, "This [issue] is more to do with the Flight Standard Directorate. These are low-level violations more to do with discipline, wherein they permitted a person to travel on the jump seat and then let him sleep on the floor, which is really bad."