India: First-time flyer smokes 'beedi' on Akasa plane, arrested at Bengaluru airport

A 56-year-old man was arrestedupon arrival at Bengaluru's Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) on Tuesday (May 16) afternoon.He was arrested because he was smoking a beedi,a locally made cigarettein which tobacco is rolled into dried plant leaves,aboard an Akasa Air aircraft from Ahmedabad to Bengaluru.

The man,a native of Marwar junction in Rajasthan's Pali district, has been sent to the Bengaluru Central Jail. This is KIA's first arrest for smoking a beedi.

Earlier this year, KIA police arrested two passengers for smoking cigarettes aboard a plane. Kumar, who works in construction, told police that he is self-employed and that this was his first time flying.

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A senior police official emphasised that failing to identify smoke during security frisking is a major lapse, reported Times Now.

"Cigarettes are easily detectable. The only explanation for such an incident is a failure in the frisking process," the officer stated as quoted by Times now.

In the prior two incidents, the accused were well aware of the rigorous no-smoking ban on aeroplanes yet were nevertheless found smoking. According to an investigating officer, Kumar, as a first-time traveller, claimed to be uninformed of the no-smoking regulation.

"Kumar is a laborer from Marwar. He was accompanying an elderly person who was traveling to the city for a post-death ceremony of a relative," the officer explained.

"Since I regularly travel by train and smoke inside the toilet, I thought I could do the same on the flight and decided to smoke a beedi," Kumar confessed to the police.

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The man was onboard an Akasa aeroplane (flightQ) bound for Bengaluru when the crew spotted him smoking inside the bathroom. The airline's duty manager, lodged a complaint against himwith KIA police shortly after arriving at approximately 1:10 p.m.

According to a senior police officer, once detained, the accused must spend at least one week in court custody. "Smoking in midair poses a risk to everyone," the officer emphasised.

Unruly passengers on board

Smoking, including the use of e-cigarettes, is forbidden on flights in India, according to The Aircraft Rules of 1937. However, a number of violations have been recorded around the country in recent days.

Indigo and Air India both reported passengers who were found smoking in restrooms in early March. A 24-year-old female passenger on a Bengaluru-bound IndiGo flight was detained for smoking in the restroom. The cabin crew noticed the cigarette in the garbage and doused it with water. A passenger smoking inside the lavatory of a Delhi-bound flight had been discovered by Air India personnel the day before. The cabin crew had detected smoke coming from the lavatory even before the fire alarm went off, reported Live Mint.

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