Man Who Slapped IndiGo Pilot Was Sitting In Plane For Several Hours

In a lengthy post on X, Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the "unprecedented fog" had led to, at times, "zero visibility" and this forced authorities to briefly shut down ops at the Delhi airport.

The IndiGo passenger who slapped the captain of a Delhi-Goa flight may have been sitting in the plane, with his 100-odd co-passenger, for nearly 10 hours, waiting for the Airbus A20 to take off, sources told NDTV Monday afternoon. The passenger - identified as Sahil Kataria - reportedly ran up from his seat in the last row to slap co-captain Anup Kumar as he was announcing a further delay.

The incident took place on IndiGo's 6E2175 service from Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport to Dabolim in Goa. The plane was scheduled to take off at 7.40 am but, according to flight tracking website FlightAware, only departed at 5.33 pm, after prolonged delays to bad weather included heavy fog limiting visibility, and an enforced change of crew due to flight duty time limitations.

The disturbing video of the assault - widely shared online - also shows IndiGo crew rushing to help Mr Kumar, and members of the cabin crew hysterically remonstrating with Mr Kataria, telling him (in Hindi), "You can't do this... you can't do this!". To this he responded, "Why can't I do this? Why can't I?"