NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of a woman entrepreneur alleging that a flying officer barged into a toilet on an IndiGo flight while she was inside, another serious charge has been levelled against the airline by a senior aviation professional. This time, it concerns inconvenience caused to more than 200 passengers after crew allegedly reserved one of the three lavatories for their personal use.
Aviation expert Sanjay Lazar, CEO of Avialaz Consultants, flagged the incident on social media, calling it “TOILETGATE”. It occurred on flight 6E 2624 from Pune to Delhi on August 21.
Tagging IndiGo and its CEO on X, Lazar asked: “Hey @IndiGo, since when do your flight attendants keep lavatories locked for their personal use on short flights?”
“This practice is dangerous, illegal and a violation of passenger rights apart from it being an abhorrent & unethical work practice,” he wrote.
Lazar said he queued with other passengers outside the two rear lavatories, marked F and G. While lavatory F was in use, he claimed lavatory G remained locked.
“At least four passengers came in and out of one lavatory (F) but the other one, (the larger one, G) was firmly locked. I asked the rear galley crew whether it was occupied or locked by them? They said there was a lady inside,” he recalled, posting photos of the toilets.
He added that he questioned the crew about seating capacity, flight duty time limitations and flight patterns to show he was an aviation professional. “But they failed to understand,” he said.
A woman passenger later exited lavatory F and complained of no soap. The crew then directed Lazar to use it.
“It all seemed mighty fishy!!!” he wrote, alleging, “Having spent 37 years flying in an airline, I realised it was a crew con game.”
According to Lazar, the locked lavatory was later opened so the woman could access soap.
“I had not shut my door, I heard the sound and caught her opening the manually BLOCKED TOILET and confronted her. Both crew were shocked and tried to make some excuse that they were opening it,” he alleged.
Calling the act “shameful”, Lazar said the two-hour flight had 224 passengers with only two lavatories available at the rear. “How many do your crew complement of 5 want to block? This is a DESPICABLE act, to make paying passengers wait in spite of being asked queries,” he wrote.
He noted that passengers were deprived of a toilet and questioned how anyone could be left locked inside for so long. “Don’t you open it in case of an emergency? You don’t wait 10-15 minutes,” he asked.
Lazar said he raised the issue with a staffer and urged her to report it, adding that he would escalate the matter.
He appealed to the aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Union Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu to take action against the crew.
In response, IndiGo posted on X: “This is certainly not the kind of experience we would like you to have. Rest assured, a thorough investigation has been initiated for this.”
The airline has not issued a media statement on the incident.