The unpleasant happenings of two disruptive passengers on board two separate Dhaka-bound flights on the same day may sound to be a bit strange to many. But the recent occurrences, although they apparently seem like coincidence in nature, have brought before us the very issue of in-flight operations and management - if not the security issue at large.
Reports say the first case of disruption was recorded when a Bangladeshi young man was detained for turning naked and then going to extremes of obscene behaviour and at one stage urinating on his seat and attacking a flight attendant aboard the Dhaka-bound flight from Kuala Lumpur. The mind-boggling incident took place earlier this month aboard a foreign airlines flight (OD162) that took off from Kuala Lumpur, as reported by the Malaysia-based Star Online.
On watching porn contents on his laptop, the young lad, aged 20, got undressed, walked to the toilet naked and came back only to urinate on his own seat. Student of a Cyberjaya university, the Bangladeshi youth in all his nude glory attempted to swoop on the chief flight attendant when she asked him to put on some clothes for the sake of decency.
The man reportedly also behaved aggressively. Other ill-fated passengers aboard the flight were forced to pin him down and tie up his hands as the situation spiralled out of control. Different social media platforms including Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber were later awash with the naked pictures of the youth, who was out of his senses.
Upon arrival in Dhaka, the unruly passenger was, however, produced before a mobile court that declared him 'mentally imbalanced.' He was later taken into custody by a security team.
The airlines later posted online, "With regards to the incident about a disruptive passenger onboard OD162 to Dhaka on March 3, the crew onboard have followed the standard operating procedure to restraint passenger from any further disruption to the onboard crew and passengers. The disruptive passenger was accompanied by Dhaka security team upon arrival and he has been put to jail by authorities in Dhaka due to this offence."
In the second unpleasant event of in-flight nuisance on the same day, a 14-year-old minor girl was thrown off a Dhaka-bound flight of a local airline after she started screaming all on a sudden and demanded to get down from the plane as soon as the aircraft started its run on the Jessore airport tarmac.
The plane had to be stopped immediately as other passengers aboard the plane started getting panicked. Police said the aircraft somehow took off nearly half an hour later at 7:30pm and the teenager was later allowed to leave the plane and subsequently detained by police for questioning on charge of showing frenetic behaviour during the flight.
The girl, during preliminary interrogation at the airport, admitted that she only screamed after her boyfriend, who was in the airport neighbourhood, called her on the phone. A state minister along with two ruling Awami League bigwigs were also on board after joining a scheduled public rally addressed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in Khulna.
No doubt, the first incident of mile-high melee has understandably maligned our national image while the second unsolicited event has only lent credence to the negative impression about our in-flight operating procedure, if not the wider part of the security issue.
Hence, the standard flight operating procedure has once again come to the fore for wider discussion. The authorities concerned should not count the two latest happenings as stray incidents. Rather, they should take this as an opportunity for greater soul-searching and thereby determine the doable in view of the standard flight operating procedures across the regions.
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