Video of man smoking on SpiceJet flight surfaces; probe ordered

New Delhi: Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday ordered an investigation after a video showing bodybuilder Bobby Kataria smoking on a SpiceJet flight surfaced on social media.

The video shows Kataria – who has 6.3 lakh followers on Instagram – lighting a cigarette on one of the back rows of a SpiceJet plane.

Passengers are not allowed to take lighter in the plane. Passengers are also not allowed to smoke in the plane.

SpiceJet said that the smoking incident took place in its Dubai-Delhi flight on January 20 when passengers were boarding the plane and the cabin crew members were busy with completing the on-boarding procedure.

After investigation, the airline had put the passenger on "no flying list" for 15 days in February, it mentioned.

As per the regulations of aviation regulator DGCA, an airline has the power to ban an "unruly" passenger for a certain period of time if he or she violates any rules.

When the video of this incident was posted on Twitter on Thursday, Scindia responded: "Investigating it. There will be no tolerance towards such hazardous behaviour."

Sources from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) said on Thursday that the video of this incident came to their knowledge in January this year and they had then written to the concerned airline and subsequently sent a complaint to the police in Gurugram.

"We understand the police filed a complaint against him there (in Gurugram)," one of the CISF source said.