Flight from Hell: Riddhima Kapoor Sahni Recounts a Traumatizing Ordeal on Air Vistara

Oh, the joys of air travel, right? You settle in, buckle up, perhaps glance at your phone or try to distract the little one, expecting a relatively smooth journey from point A to point B. But for Riddhima Kapoor Sahni, sister to Ranbir Kapoor and a familiar face herself, a recent Vistara flight from Mumbai to Delhi with her daughter, Samara, became anything but routine. In truth, it spiraled into what she described as utterly "traumatising."

Imagine this: You’re stuck on the tarmac, an hour and a half past scheduled departure, already feeling the collective groan of restless passengers. And then, a cacophony erupts. Not just a minor grumble, mind you, but a full-blown, deeply unsettling scene unfolding right there, in the confines of the cabin. Riddhima took to her Instagram stories, recounting the ordeal in vivid detail, and honestly, it sounds like something straight out of a particularly stressful B-movie.

Apparently, even before the plane could think about pushing back, one passenger had decided the aircraft was their personal stage for a theatrical meltdown. "Yelling, abusing, and creating a ruckus," she wrote. But it wasn't just verbal; it escalated. The individual, allegedly, was "throwing a full-blown fit" and, quite alarmingly, "physically harming" another passenger and even members of the cabin crew. Can you even begin to picture that? The sheer audacity, the immediate sense of unease that must have rippled through the plane.

Here's the kicker, the part that truly boggles the mind: despite this violent, disruptive behavior—behavior that clearly posed a threat to safety and peace—the passenger was not de-boarded. Riddhima expressed her absolute shock, her profound disappointment with Air Vistara's handling of the situation. For any parent, seeing such a volatile scenario unfold with their child nearby, like her daughter Samara, is the stuff of nightmares. The instinct to protect, to flee, must have been overwhelming. "We were stuck for 1.5 hrs in the flight," she stated, adding, "and felt scared for our child." It’s a completely understandable reaction, isn't it?

While she did acknowledge the valiant efforts of some Vistara crew members who tried to intervene, her core grievance remained glaringly clear: why wasn't this individual removed? Passenger safety, one would think, is paramount. This incident, you could say, shines a rather harsh light on airline protocols and their enforcement. It begs the question: At what point does disruptive behavior cross the line from a nuisance to a genuine threat, demanding immediate removal? For Riddhima and certainly for many others now hearing her story, that line was crossed long ago. One can only hope that Vistara takes serious action, because honestly, no one should have to endure a "traumatizing" flight like that.