IndiGo Flight Attendant Reaches Breaking Point: “I Am Not Your Servant”

Flight attendants deal with a lot of bad behavior from passengers. Even though the flight attendant loses her cool here, I’m inclined to feel bad for her and the rest of the crew…

IndiGo flight attendant & passenger get into argument

A roughly minute-long video posted online, depicts what happened on a recent IndiGo flight from Istanbul (IST) to Delhi (DEL). In the video, a flight attendant can be seen kneeling down and arguing with an angry and unhappy passenger.

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In the dialogue between the flight attendant and passenger:

• The flight attendant admonishes the passenger for pointing his finger at her, and says “my crew is crying because of you”
• The issue seems to involve meal selection, and how the passenger didn’t get the meal he thinks he requested
• The passenger then yells at the flight attendant, asking “why are you yelling?”
• At this point the flight attendant raises her voice, and yells back “because you are yelling on us”
• Another flight attendant then shows up to restrain the flight attendant and calm her down
• The flight attendant continues, “I’m so sorry sir, but you cannot talk to the crew like that; I am peacefully listening to you with all due respect, and you have to respect the crew as well”
• At this point the passenger responds by asking “why are you yelling?” and also yells “shut up!”
• The flight attendant responds by yelling “you shut up, I’m sorry, you cannot talk to me like that”
• At this point the passenger says “you are a servant,” to which the flight attendant responds “I’m not your servant, I am an employee, I am not your servant”

You can see the video for yourself below…

Here’s the statement that IndiGo issued regarding this incident:

We are aware of the incident that took place on flight 6E 12 from Istanbul to Delhi on December 16, 2022. The issue was related to meals chosen by certain passengers traveling via a codeshare connection. IndiGo is cognizant of the needs of its customers and it is our constant endeavor to provide a courteous and hassle-free experience to our customers. We are looking into the incident and would like to assure that customers’ comfort has always been our top priority.

My take on this IndiGo confrontation

I have a few thoughts on this video and incident.

First of all, the passenger may have very well had a legitimate gripe. It sounds like maybe the correct kind of meal wasn’t loaded because the flight was booked as a codeshare, and some request got lost in the process. That’s of course frustrating, as this isn’t a short flight either.

That being said, any mistakes in catering a certain type of meal are not the crew’s fault. This guy comes across as a complete jerk. The flight attendant claims he made her fellow crew members cry, so he must have really been acting ridiculously toward them. The fact that he tells the flight attendant to “shut up” and says she’s a servant is sickening.

Despite what a jerk the passenger was being, I think it’s also fair to say that the flight attendant lost her cool a bit, and wasn’t doing an amazing job deescalating the situation. Don’t get me wrong, I 100% think the fault here lies with the passenger, but yelling at a passenger to tell them to stop yelling at you, and responding with “you shut up” when someone tells you to “shut up” doesn’t usually make a situation better.

We all reach a breaking point, though, and it’s clear that this flight attendant reach her’s. We’re all human, so that’s bound to happen sometimes.

Bottom line

A confrontation between an IndiGo flight attendant and passenger escalated to the point that the two were yelling at one another, and a flight attendant sort of had to restrain her colleague. While I think the flight attendant could have handled the situation better, the passenger here sounds terrible, telling the flight attendant to shut up, and calling her a servant.

What do you make of this IndiGo incident?