Man removed from Indian plane after entering cockpit to charge phone

A passenger was kicked off a plane after he tried to enter the cockpit to charge his mobile phone. According to airport officials, the male passenger was drunk when he boarded the flight from Mumbai to Kolkata in India on Sept. 24. Budget airline IngiGo confirmed via email that a passenger had been removed because of a security violation and handed over to police. "While an IndiGo aircraft was on the ground, an unruly passenger tried to enter the cockpit stating that his mobile needs to be charged, an airline spokesperson said, citing rules that prohibit entry into the cockpit. "Following standard operating procedures the captain operating6E-395 flight from Mumbai to Kolkata had initiated the offloading of the passenger on grounds of security violation." An airport official told the Press Trust of India news agency that the man was in his mid-thirties. Trying to Open the Rear Door Mid-flight According to news site Udayavani, an official said, "He was drunk and wanted to charge his mobile phone. So he moved toward the cockpit." He was taken to the police station but later released after questioning without charge, according to the official. Earlier this week on another Indian flight, a passenger attempted to open the rear door of the aircraft midair. The first-time flyer had apparently mistaken it for the toilet door. With the falling costs of flights, the number of air passengers in India has increased sixfold in the last decade, making for many first-time flyers in a population of over 1.3 billion people.