The incident of an inebriated Indian man having urinated on a Delhi-bound septuagenarian business class woman co-passenger has been spewing headlines in print media, conquering prime-time television slots and buzzing like a bee on social media for some time now. The repulsive and shameful ‘bladder burst’ that occurred on board flight AI 102 is being dissected and debated with rivet and rigor of an issue of ‘rashtriya’ cognizance and consequence, befitting for the iconic Maharaja that now reflects in Tata’s assets inventory.
While a significant number of air passengers are allergic to peanuts, nuts it seems are scripted in the destiny of this flag carrier airline of India! “Air India was bought by the house of TATAs for pea nuts”, the disinvestment pundits had recently criticized the government. As a cost cutting measure, the carrier had started serving a pouch of ‘pea nuts’ smaller than the passenger’s fist as refreshments. And going by the stench of in-flight episodes recently, now it seems to be infested by ‘pee nuts’ in the air; high on gratis alcohol served ad libitum and their vision blurred and unable to distinguish between a lady and the lavatory!
Indeed the appalling conduct of the thirty-something Mishra not only embarrassed his American employer who immediately sacked him, but has also raised questions on the competence of the cabin crew, percipience of the flight captain and professionalism in complain handling of Air India too. Certainly the TATAs would wish that the business class of their Air India should not have been the arena for this mid-air episode of urinary incontinence that left an old unaccompanied woman passenger drenched in urine, fearful and embarrassed. Perhaps John Kennedy and Indira Gandhi, after whom the origin and destination airports of this flight AI 102 are named; must be posthumously remorseful and censorious of this shameful incident!
As is now revealed, the incident occurred on November 26 but was hushed up due to improper incident reporting by the airline crew, and the offender literally walked through the ‘green channel’ with just a ‘hangover apology’ to the tormented lady; who endured her ordeal with just gifted pajamas and socks lodging herself in the cramped seat of the cabin crew through the flight. It is also insensitive that the flight attendants left her with the ‘drunken to the brim’ aggressor for a compromise and settlement.
It is annoying that they simply upholstered the seat reeking with urine and sprayed a disinfectant on the women’s bag and clothes, refusing to offer her a seat in the first class section pending approval from the ‘resting’ flight commander.
The man accused of ‘criminal incontinence’ would have escaped attention and prosecution, had it not been for the conscientious fellow passenger, the Agartala born US-based audiologist Dr Sugata Bhattacharjee who not only witnessed the horror, but had also cautioned the cabin crew to limit serving of alcohol to the clearly intoxicated offender. This passenger seated one seat away from the alleged offender claims that his morality pinched him hard after seeing the senior Mishra going on a denial mode attempting to absolve his son of ‘misadventures of an intemperate bladder’.
As a biologist I see a few possible scenarios that may explain this anomalous behaviour in the present case; however none of these explanations can take the onus off the culprit, as there is a clear shade of misbehavior exacerbated by excessive consumption of alcohol. Normally, one voids urine only when there is a socially acceptable opportunity to do so, and until then the bladder is sealed by the urethral sphincter under command from the ‘Pontine Micturition Centre’ of the brainstem.
A strong alcohol beverage itself is a diuretic that will make one pee more, and though a male bladder can hold up to 700 ml of urine, the urge to urinate sets in when bladder fills to about 250 ml. Given the restricted and regulated access to the airborne lavatory; with seat belt sign switching on abruptly due to turbulence, makes one fret and sweat to a point of uncontrolled voiding.
Many passengers’ worst night mare is the urgency they feel when the pilot announces that the aircraft has started descent and asks the flight attendants to ‘prepare for landing’. For those uninitiated with the aircraft toilets, the space-saving and compact swing type door can be tricky to open and close, the loud noise of the flush that works on vacuum can be scary, and the brief claustrophobic detention can be distressing!
Of course the toilet in the business-class of this flight was just four rows behind the offender’s seat. Was his obnoxious act due to poor judgment accentuated by excessive alcohol consumption, did the man have any underlying medical condition like an overactive bladder resulting in urge incontinence, or was his bladder tone compromised due to a comorbidity like diabetes are questions as well as escape routes from an impending prosecution and punishment.
No matter what the reason was for this obnoxious leakage, the target he found in that elderly woman will find no justification; neither in medicine nor in law! As a biologist I know about ‘urohidrosis’, that wood storks and seals urinate on their own legs and flippers to cool off; but a corporate hunk doing that on somebody else’s body defies reasoning.
The guy has sabotaged his American dream with a damaging self goal, earned global castigation and entered the hall of infamy effortlessly. What is important is not just putting such offenders on ‘No Fly’ list for a short duration, but to instill fear of law such that the ‘fly’ on their trousers does not open except in the aircraft lavatory! Alas! This passenger has incurred Mahalajja for himself and the Maharaja.
