As a result, the Captain had to request the security staff to offload the 30 passengers, along with their baggage. Initially the passengers resisted but they eventually had to deplane as the other passengers on board requested for the same,” said the statement issued by Indigo.
The airline spokesperson however denied reports about physical assault on the crew. Deplaned team members included captain Rajeev Pillai, Riyaz Khan, Manikuttan, brand ambassador Bhavana and manager Edavela Babu. They maintained that the aircraft crew treated them “unfairly”.
According to Rajiv Pillai the captain of the flight arbitrarily acted on a complaint by an air hostess. “He kept repeating that the plane won’t take off if we are on board,” he said. Rajiv denied any misbehaviour from their side. “Is applauding considered misbehaviour? Even if it is, they could’ve asked the members who applauded to step out. Instead, they wanted the entire team to leave,” said Rajeev Pillai who put the number of off-loaded passengers at 27.
It was an unexpected development, said Edavela Babu. “We were just cheering up the flight crew after safety demonstration, which he said was usual in every journey for the last one month. We were doing it when the flight landed also,” he said while denying any misbehaviour as alleged by the airline. Babu said the CCL has four women in their team. “We know how to behave with women,” he said.
Babu said they did not want to trouble other passengers and got out of the flight on their own.
Both the Indigo Airlines and Kerala strikers have registered a complaint with Nedumbassery police on the issue. The team members boarded flights to Chennai and Mumbai later in the day, from where they would fly to Hyderabad.