Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Piss in haste, repent at leisure.

Shankar Mishra used to be Well Fargo's VP of operations in India.

Alas, on a November Air India flight from New York to New Delhi, Mishra somehow (allegedly somehow) peed (allegedly peed) on the 72-year-old-woman who was seated across the aisle from him in business class. Make that no class.

On an Air India flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport to Indira Gandhi International Airport on Nov. 26, Mishra was “completely inebriated” and urinated on another passenger, according to a police report, which cited a letter from the alleged victim.
“He unzipped his pants and urinated on me and kept standing there until the person sitting next to me tapped him and told him to go back to his seat,” said the woman, who was seated in business class one row behind Mishra, according to the report. (Source: Washington Post)

I've heard of drunks peeing on themselves. But being so drunk that you stand up in an airplane aisle and pee on a fellow passenger?  Without someone doing more than "tapping" him and suggesting he go sit down?

Seriously, folks, there are toilets on airplanes. And even though there may be a line in steerage, you generally don't have to wait - or wait all that long - if you're in business or first (both of which I've flown on plenty of occasions).

But I guess it happens, and this is by no means the only such incident that's been recorded. (Thanks google!) And then there was the notorious event a few years back when some fin-serv exec crapped on the drinks cart...(It always does seem to be fin serv, doesn't it?)

Anyway, yikes. (Yucks!)

Bad enough that the woman was urinated on by a drunken passenger. In the wake of the incident, she was treated piss-poorly by Air India.

According to the report, the woman said that her clothes, shoes and bag were “soaked in urine,” and that the flight crew “refused to touch them, sprayed my bag and shoes with disinfectant, and took me to the bathroom and gave me a set of airline pyjamas and socks.”

She requested another seat but was told none was available. After she refused to sit in her soiled seat, the woman said, she was given a jump seat — a small seat meant for short-term use by crew — for the remainder of the flight.

Another passenger “who had witnessed my plight” noted that it appeared there were seats open in first class, but the crew informed her that the pilot had “vetoed giving me a seat in first class.”

Air India also tried to mediate things by bringing Mishra - a bit sobered up - face-to-face with the women. Not something that she welcomed. (One of the flight's pilots and a number of members of the cabin crew are now in some kind of hot water with the airline. And Air India is reviewing their alcohol-on-flights policy. So there's that.)

When he met with his victim, Mishra went all crocodile tears, begged the woman not to press charges, and offered to pay for her stained belongings to be cleaned. Pressured by Mishra's performance and crew insistence, she took the money and agreed not to insist on Mishra's arrest.

A few weeks later, she had second thoughts. She returned the money and decided to pursue charges. (Meanwhile, Air India sportingly refunded her ticket.)

Mishra has been arrested and charged with a number of crimes.

He's 34 years old, married with a child, and had a good and responsible job.

The operative word is had.

He's been fired by Wells Fargo.

His career is in ruins, as is his reputation. And in a culture where shame still exists...I do feel a tiny bit bad for him. I'm sure he's beside himself, as, no doubt, are his family members.

Piss in haste, repent at leisure.

1 comment:

Ellen said...

Yuck!