IndiGo ban: Flight pilot says ban on Kunal Kamra not justified under rules

An IndiGo Airlines pilot conveyed his reservations to the airline’s management for not consulting him before announcing a six-month ban on comedian Kunal Kamra.

The pilot was in command when Karma launched into a tirade against television anchor Arnab Goswami, which led to the comedian being banned from four airlines.

In a letter to the IndiGo management, Rohit Mateti said he was “disheartened” to learn that Kamra was banned purely on the basis of social media posts and that though his behaviour was “unsavoury”, it did not qualify for a level 1 unruly passenger”.

“As captain of 6E5317 Mumbai-Lucknow flight on January 28, I do not find… events reportable in any way… Indeed, we pilots can all attest to incidents similar and/or worse in nature that were not deemed unruly,” he said in the letter.