Man deboarded for smoking on flight

Chennai

A 40-year-old man was offloaded from a flight and handed over to the police after he smoked a cigarette on board, on Wednesday.

The Indigo Airlines flight to Patna was scheduled to depart from Chennai airport in the afternoon.

It was the fellow passengers who spotted Praveen Kumar Sharma of Bihar smoking in his seat and informed the cabin crew, who asked him not to smoke inside the flight.

But he disregarded them, following which the pilot and security officials were informed. As he failed to respond properly, officials took him off the flight and handed him over to the airport police.

The flight then departed to Patna with the remaining 48 passengers. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Civil Aviation security officials have initiated an inquiry into how Praveen Kumar managed to clear the security check carrying a lighter. The officials are inquiring the security officials who checked him.