The Indian airlines will carry plastic handcuffs to restrain unruly passenger. The news comes in the wake of recent spate of incidents involving airlines offloading passengers for alleged disruptive behaviors inside the aircraft.
According to news reports, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has given a go ahead for the airlines to use restraining methods against passengers those threaten the safety of the aircraft.
The DGCA's direction to restrain unruly passengers were issued during end of the 2015, said reports.
The western airlines have already been using such techniques to rein in bad behaviors of the flyers.
Last week, about a group of 70 passengers were deplaned for alleged unruly behaviour from an Indigo flight. The group was travelling to Raipur from Hyderabad and were trying to exchange seats among themselves, which resulted in altercation with cabin crew and subsequently the group was offloaded.
On Wednesday, the same airlines de-boarded three of the family from a Mumbai flight on similar grounds.
The reports also added that the airlines have developed various levels of threat perceptions, which will also influence the air crew's action on alleged troublemakers.
Indigo has come up with a list of various levels of threat perceptions and methods to control unruly passengers:
Level 1: Verbal abuse, in which case crew gives a clear warning and a red warning card is also given to the passenger in question.
Level 2: Physical abuse like touching, slapping, in which case Captain of the aircraft issues a warning and the passenger is handed over to security officials with a red card on arrival.
Level 3: Behaviour that threatens safety of the aircraft. At this level, in consultation with the Captain restraining methods are applied to control unruly passenger. And this also allows security intervention on arrival.
Level 4: Break into the cockpit, which is perceived as the highest level of threat that also tantamount to hijack kind of situation. The crew applies the restraining techniques.
