After a video of a social media influencer and bodybuilder Bobby Kataria alias Balwant Kataria from Gurgaon lighting a cigarette inside a SpiceJet aircraft was shared by several people on social media, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has ordered an investigation into the matter.
Kataria has a following of 6.3 lakh on Instagram.
In the video Kataria is seen lying down on the aircraft seat and lighting a cigarette and taking a couple of puffs, posing safety risks.
Spice Jet Thursday issued a statement saying that the video was old and they have filed a complaint in the matter. The statement also said that Katarai had been put on the ‘no-flying’ list for a period of 15 days in February.
“The matter had been investigated thoroughly in January 2022 when the video was brought to our notice and a complaint had been filed by the airline with the Udyog Vihar police station in Gurugram. The video, the investigation had revealed, was shot on January 20, 2022 while the passengers were boarding flight SG 706 scheduled to operate from Dubai to Delhi. The said passenger and his co-passengers shot the video on the 21st row when the cabin crew was occupied with completing the on-boarding procedure. None of the passengers or crew was aware of the act. The matter came to the airline’s notice on 24th Jan ’22 through social media posts. The matter was referred to the Internal Committee constituted as per the provisions of Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) on the handling of unruly passengers (not consisting of any SpiceJet employee). The said passenger was put on a no-flying list by the airline for 15 days in February 2022,” Spice Jet said in the statement.
