Family thrown off flight after flight attendant slapped

An aircraft from low-cost Indian carrier

A passenger and his family were removed from a flight after the 67-year-old man allegedly slapped a flight attendant.

The man, identified as PK Maheshwari, was on a SpiceJet plane from Kathmandu to Delhi, which had been delayed by five hours, when he started to fall asleep.

According to Times of India, Maheshwari said: "Suddenly I was jolted awake... The stewardess had hit my foot with considerable force, though the aisle of the aircraft was clear... (She) started shouting at me that my foot was in the aisle."

He claims he tried to tell the stewardess that he had fallen asleep but she "would not listen to me which led to... sharp exchange of words about the harassment due to delay."

A SpiceJet spokesman said: "The passenger who was disturbed got up and physically slapped the cabin crew. There is zero tolerance of this kind of physical abuse of crew anywhere in the world, including in India and therefore the captain made the decision he did (offloading the family)."

According to the Daily Mail, the family were forced to take a 30-hour bus home after the incident as they could not afford new plane tickets.

Last year, a man pleaded guilty to slapping a crying child on a flight .

Joe Rickey Hundley was on a Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis to Atlanta when he used a racial slur to refer to a 19-month-old boy sitting on his mother's lap, before hitting him under the right eye.

At the start of the flight, Hundley asked a flight attendant about the airline's policy regarding "lap children". As a result, the mother Jessica Bennett decided to spend most of the flight at the rear of the cabin with her son, only returning shortly before landing.

According to the FBI, the child started crying as the plane descended and Hundley leaned over to Bennett and "told her to shut that (N-word) baby up."

He then slapped the toddler, leaving a scratch below his right eye.