Air India has suspended one of its captains for allegedly shoplifting a wallet from a duty-free shop at Sydney airport, the airline said on Sunday.
The action was taken against Captain Rohit Bhasin after a complaint was filed against him by Australian regional manager.
“There is an initial report of one of its Captains Rohit Bhasin who is also working as a regional director picking up a wallet from a duty-free shop in Sydney,” said Air India spokesperson Dhananjay Kumar.
In an official communique, Kumar said, “Air India lays the highest stress on the proper conduct of its staff and has a zero-tolerance policy towards acts of impropriety.”
The national carrier has also instituted an inquiry into this incident, the communication said.
“He was involved in flying into Coffins Corner over France with full passenger load and was suspended for sometime by DGCA”, said sources from Air India.
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Coffin Corner is a region of flight where a fast but sub-sonic fixed wing aircraft’s stall speed is near the critical Mach number, at a given cross weight and G-force loading. In this region of flight, it is very difficult to keep an airplane in stable flight.
The suspension of Bhasin comes close on the heels of de-rostering an Air India captain and a crew member for allegedly getting into a heated argument on board Delhi-Bengaluru plane.