Most in-flight horror stories, of which passengers everywhere experience too many, elicit a scripted apology from the airline or its chief executive. Then it is back to business; aggrieved travellers are left to stew. An incident in November on an Air India flight from New York to Delhi is playing out differently. On January 11th a court in the Indian capital heard a case of a 34-year-old man arrested for urinating while intoxicated on a 72-year-old female fellow business-class passenger. The man blamed the act on alcohol and told the court he had no memory of it when the cabin crew woke him and asked him to apologise, which he did. His bail request was nevertheless denied.
India is full of stories of well-connected individuals escaping punishment for untoward actions. A brief spark of outrage is followed, sometimes, with a promise of an investigation that, if it happens, tends to be dragged out and soon forgotten. This case fitted that script—until late December, when a letter from the victim reached Natarajan Chandrasekaran, chairman of Tata Sons, the conglomerate that bought Air India from the government in 2022. The letter, which has been seen by The Economist, began innocently enough: “I am writing to express my deep disappointment regarding the appalling incident that occurred during my business-class trip.”