12 August,2016 08:30 AM IST | | Neha LM Tripathi
While airline says Pooja Missra was offloaded for causing nuisance in Mumbai-Lucknow GoAir flight, she claims she didn't board the flight at all as she reached airport late
VJ and model Pooja Misrra is at it again. Less than a year after she assaulted and threatened the staff of a hotel in Delhi after allegedly refusing to pay for the items she broke in her room, she abused passengers of a Mumbai-Lucknow GoAir flight yesterday, sneering at them for travelling "donkey class".
VJ Pooja Misrra is no stranger to whipping up controversies
The ensuing ruckus forced the pilot to offload her and delayed the 9.50 am flight by 30 minutes.
Sources said Misrra, who was travelling business class, flew off the handle even before boarding the flight. She checked in on time and waited at the first floor lounge, a two-minute walk from the boarding gates. "The loader was supposed to pick her hand baggage and drop it through priority boarding (a service offered to business class flyers), but she left the lounge before the loader's arrival," said a senior Mumbai airport official. "She then went up till the boarding gate, where the loader touched her baggage. She accused him of misbehaving with her. The airline staff handled the situation."
Ruckus in flight
Things only went downhill from here. According to a co-passenger, as soon as Misrra got onto the aerobridge, she bumped into a passenger with her handbag, but accused him of misbehaving. Inside the flight, she began abusing other flyers "for no apparent reason", said the co-passenger. It wasn't long before arguments broke out between her and other passengers.
All hell broke loose when she allegedly hurled this outrageous abuse: "I'm a business class passenger, not donkey class like yours (sic)."
The pilot had to intervene, but she allegedly picked an argument with him as well. "The passengers weren't ready to fly with her and it was then that the pilot took a call to not take her on board," said a GoAir official. "The CISF had to be called. It was only after the passenger was told that she was being deplaned on the basis of her behaviour did she begin to calm down."
The airport and Sahar police say they deal with at least three cases of unruly passengers a month. "Such incidents [of disruptive behaviour] have increased over the last year. These cases have to be handled with the utmost care," said a senior police official.
