'Unruly' passengers cause cockpit disruption on SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Mumbai, delay departure by 7 hours
Two passengers were filmed attempting to storm the cockpit of a SpiceJet flight from Delhi to Mumbai on Monday.
The dramatic incident, which delayed the flight by over seven hours, was caught on camera and has since gone viral.
The video shows visibly agitated passengers standing mid-cabin, demanding the air-conditioning be turned on. When fellow fliers urge them to sit down, one is heard shouting: “AC chala de, hum baith jayenge” (switch the AC on, we will sit down). Another frustrated traveller fires back: “You cannot stop a plane like this; this is illegal.” Passengers can also be heard telling crew members to call airport security, with one saying, “Those who don’t want to go, make sure they get down.”
The incident took place just after the aircraft began taxiing on the runway. According to flight tracker Flightradar24, SpiceJet flight S9282 was scheduled to depart at 12.30pm but only took off at 7.21pm, arriving in Mumbai at 9.05pm. While the airline has not officially confirmed whether the entire delay was due to the disruption, it has issued a statement on the matter.
“On July 14, 2025, two unruly passengers were offloaded from SpiceJet flight SG 9282 operating from Delhi to Mumbai. The two attempted to forcefully approach the cockpit and caused a disruption while the aircraft was taxiing,” the airline said.
“Despite repeated requests by the cabin crew, fellow passengers, and the Captain, they refused to return to their seats. In the interest of the safety of all passengers and crew, the Captain decided to return the aircraft to the bay, and the passengers were offloaded. They were subsequently handed over to the CISF,” the statement continued.
Reacting to the incident, Karnataka Congress spokesperson Lavanya Ballal Jain posted the video on X (formerly Twitter) and wrote: “Just another day of air travel in India. On Monday the flight was delayed by 7 hours because some passengers decided they wanted to get into the cockpit. This was on SpiceJet from Delhi to Mumbai. Uncouth passengers and crumbling travel infra.”
Reacting on the video, one X user wrote, “Going to keep this in mind for when they make us keep us waiting indefinitely and my body just wants to go home.” Another added: “Thought that that was tantamount to hijacking and that the pilots had the freedom to shoot ’em down?”
Brinda Adige, a human rights activist, questioned the airline’s handling of the matter: “Is there no simpler way to de-board the culprit, the police go ahead with action and the flight takes off? Why insist to succumb to procedures that were made for our safety?”
This is the latest in a series of incidents involving disruptive behaviour onboard Indian flights. In one notorious case from 2023, an Indian man on an American Airlines flight from New York to Delhi allegedly urinated on a co-passenger while intoxicated. A similar incident took place in 2022 on an Air India flight when a drunken passenger urinated on an elderly woman in business class.