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Malindo Air’s flight to Kuala Lumpur was delayed by 50 minutes as two passengers were verbally abusing and misbehaving with the crew in a drunken state

Two passengers in a flight to Kuala Lumpur caused a delay of 50 minutes before take off. Malindo Air Flight OD 216 from Mumbai had to be pushed back on Friday evening to remove two Saudi Arabian nationals from their aircraft as they were misbehaving with the crew in an intoxicated state.

According to officials, the duo, identified as Alshammari Hameed Muzawim and Alsahir M Mubarak, were not only under the influence of alcohol, they were also verbally abusing the airline’s staff, right before it was about to take off at 10.40 pm. “The passengers were not in the position to travel and were misbehaving with the crew. The aircraft had already reached the taxiway but they decided to push back the take off to get them off the plane. They were sent back from T2,” said an airport official. The flight with the remaining 139 passengers finally took off at 11.30 pm. Did you know?According to a Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) issued by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) last year, the airline is required to adopt a method to be able to detect potentially uncontrollable flyers during the early stages of check-in at the airport lounge and even at the boarding gate. The DGCA had mentioned that passengers should be alerted about consequences of uncontrollable behaviour through prominent display of information at airport buildings. A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has to be devised by airlines, defining the role of ground staff, flight crew, airline airport manager and airline central operational control to deal with disruptive passengers while at the airport or on board. These guidelines have been placed after several incidents of passengers misbehaving came forward last year.