It was on 26th April that Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh took to Twitter and accused Bernd Hosselin, the former German pilot of Jet Airways, of passing “racist” remarks as well as assaulting a lady. Not only this, Bhajji added that the pilot also abused his fellow friend who is differently abled. The whole incident took place during a Chandigarh-Mumbai Jet Airways flight in which Harbhajan was traveling with his friends Jatinder Singh Shah and Pooja Gujaral.
Pooja and Shah brought the personal wheelchair of the latter inside the plane and since this was against the norms of DGCA, the pilot asked Pooja to remove it. This led to a fiery discussion which soon took the form of an intense argument.
Harbhajan called this incident ‘disgraceful’ and thrashing Hosselin on the micro-blogging site in a series of tweets, he wrote, “So called this Bernd Hoesslin a pilot with @jetairways called my fellow Indian (u bloody Indian get out of my flight) while he is earning here. Not only was he racist but physically assaulted a lady and abused a physically challenged man.. absolutely disgraceful &shame on @jetairways. Strict action must b taken &such things should not be allowed or tolerated in r country.. #proudtobeindian let’s get together and sort this.”
So called this Bernd Hoesslin a pilot with @jetairways called my fellow indian(u bloody indian get out of my flight)while he is earning here
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) April 26, 2017
Not only was he racist but physically assaulted a lady and abused a physically challenged man..absolutely disgraceful &shame on @jetairways
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) April 26, 2017
Strict action must b taken &such things should not be allowed or tolerated in r country.. #proudtobeindian let's get together and sort this
— Harbhajan Turbanator (@harbhajan_singh) April 26, 2017
After Bhajji’s tweets, a strict action was taken by the airlines and hence, the pilot was fired. Now the ex-pilot has sent a defamation notice to Bhajji along with Shah and Pooja as well as to Jet Airways.
As per Shukla, the lawyer of Hosselin, a notice is sent to the airlines as they terminated Bernd “despite repeated assurances from their senior officials of Jet Airways of not doing anything wrong, and acting in accordance with their and DGCA rules.”
The former pilot is of the opinion that it wasn’t his mistake, as he was only following the norms set by DGCA.
