How this man became first to be put on no-fly list

May 23, 2018 Hot from the Oven Valli Sarvani No comments

In September of 2017, India enforced the creation of a no-fly list (NFL) for disruptive passengers. People on this list are banned from flying on planes for a certain period of time. The Mumbai jeweler Birju Kishore Salla became the first person to be put on the NFL.

Salla had created a hijack scare on a Jet Airways flight last year. He left a hijack message in the business class lavatory of a Mumbai-Delhi flight on October 30th, 2017.

This forced the plane to divert to Ahmedabad. Due to Salla’s actions, Jet Airways banned him from flying on its planes for five years.

This is the first time that an Indian carrier put someone on the NFL. A senior official of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that Jet Airways informed them that Salla was banned from Jet Airways for five years, due to his breach of security.

This ban was in effect from November of 2017. The senior official of the DGCA says that it is the responsibility of an airline to inform other airlines when a person is put on the NFL. It is then up to the other airlines whether or not to put this person on their own NFLs.

The DGCA will continue to maintain a database for such disruptive passengers. Salla was banned from flying on Jet Airways’ planes under the highest level of on-board unruly behavior, which is level three.

This level of unruly behavior entails grounding from flights ranging from two years to a lifetime. Level one covers small-scale unruly behavior such as physical gestures, which can entail grounding of up to three months.

Level two covers the acts such as physically abusive behavior and sexual harassment, which entails grounding of up to six months.

Level three covers life-threatening behavior such as damage to aircraft operating systems, attempted or actual breach of the cockpit, and serious physical violence. Under each level of unruly behavior, grounding time is doubled for every subsequent offense.

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