An American Airlines flight from JFK Airport to India was met by law enforcement upon arrival in Delhi over the weekend because of a "disruption on board," the airline confirmed Tuesday.
While American didn't immediately confirm the nature of the disruption, multiple reports say it involved a supposedly drunken passenger who urinated on another passenger at some point during the flight. The person was arrested.
The individual's identity wasn't immediately released. New Delhi Television, which first reported the mid-air grotesqueness, said the person appeared to be drunk, and the victim filed a formal complaint with the airline.
"We're grateful to our crew members who are consistently dedicated to the safety and care of our customers and handled the circumstances with the utmost profession," American Airlines said in a statement Tuesday.
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Though the reported circumstances were left out of the official statement, it wouldn't have been the first time a traveler urinated on someone on a flight between New York and Delhi. It would be the third time in less than five months.
In March, a 21-year-old student was arrested for allegedly urinating on a business class passenger during that same flight from JFK to Delhi. He was allegedly heavily intoxicated, refusing to sit down and causing a raucous before "finally" peeing on a passenger, American Airlines said in a statement at the time. He was arrested when they landed.
Earlier this year, Indian police arrested a Mumbai-based bank executive who was accused of urinating on an elderly woman in business class during an Air India flight from New York. Wells Fargo swiftly terminated his employment. That incident happened in November 2022, but the man wasn't apprehended until January 2023. Local media reported that Air India banned him from using the airline for a month in that case.
American wasn't the only airline battling local unruliness this weekend. United Airlines had to abort its Newark-Tel Aviv trip Sunday a few hours after takeoff because a passenger waiting for the bathroom got into a heated argument with the cabin crew, YNetNews reported.
United confirmed the turnaround, telling NJ.com in a statement that law enforcement met the plane at the gate. The man was taken into custody and passengers were put on another flight set to depart later that night, the airline said.
