Inebriated Swede arrested for molesting air hostess on Bangkok-Mumbai flight
A Swedish national was arrested Thursday for allegedly molesting a cabin crew member in an inebriated state, the latest case of unruly behaviour on an aircraft.
The incident took place on board a four-hour-long IndiGo flight (6E-1052) from Bangkok to Mumbai. On arrival at Mumbai airport around 6.30pm, the accused, Klas Erik Harald Jonas Westberg (63), was arrested.
He was released on payment of Rs 20,000 bail surety by the Andheri Metropolitan Magistrate Court on Friday. Sahar police has filed a four-page chargesheet using the accounts of three witnesses (all cabin crew).
The passenger allegedly began to misbehave when meals were being served. His run-ins with the cabin crew lasted till the flight landed. At one stage, the 24-year-old cabin crew member alerted the captain and read out a red warning card to Westberg.
Narrating the incident in the complaint, the cabin crew member said, “The problem began when I informed Westberg (seated on 28-E), who was drunk, that there was no seafood onboard. I served him chicken meals and asked for his ATM card to make a payment through the POS machine. On the pretext of swiping the card, the passenger held my hand. I pulled it back and asked him to enter the card PIN. This time he crossed the limit… getting up, he molested me in front of other passengers. When I shouted and screamed that he was misbehaving, he returned to his seat.”
According to the police, moments later Westberg stood up again and began arguing with another cabin crew member, mouthing abuses. “The accused kept hurling “f**k y**” during the entire journey. It is then that the victim read out the red warning card and… declared (him) an ‘unruly passenger’.” Westberg also assaulted “another passenger seated on 28-D” who confronted him, the FIR said.
When the flight landed, the IndiGo security officer and CISF officials were informed and Westberg was handed over to police.
Westberg’s lawyer Prabhakar Tripathi said the accused suffers from health issues and his body shivers. “He cannot hold anything without help. He tried to hold the POS payment card machine when he touched the cabin crew. He did not touch her intentionally,” he said.
Westberg is the eighth unruly flyer arrested in the last three months. In all of 2022, police arrested six. This is the fifth case of molestation onboard registered between 2017 and 2023.
