On man in India seems to keep causing problems whenever he flies, and indeed wherever he goes.
26-year old Utkarsh Gautam flew SpiceJet from Mumbai to Jaipur on March 2 when he was caught smoking on the airport ramp in a restricted area before departure. Airline and airport staff confronted him about the safety violation – lit cigarette near jet fuel! – but the man got into an altercation with ground staff, got ejected from the flight, and was handed over to police.
Video shows him standing on the ramp smoking while staff try to stop him, and then continuing the confrontation inside at a gate. He reportedly lit another cigarette (!) and argued, demanding to know where any no smoking rule was written, and blowing smoke directly into the face of a staff member. He then taunted employees about money and status, “This is your salary, I will put it in the gutter. I earn one million. Stay within your limits.” (One million Rupees is ~ US$10,793.)
Lack of Civic sense is mainly why no one wants Indian tourists in their country
> Smoking after being requested to not to
> Smoked literally in the face of the airport staff
> When confronted, started showing-off his salary
> Acting as if he owns airport pic.twitter.com/x2lKeQSufg
— Tarun Gautam (@TARUNspeakss) March 30, 2026
Then, on March 22, he was flying IndiGo 373 from Jaipur to Bengaluru. According to police, he attempted to open the aircraft’s exit door while the aircraft was in the air. He may have been drunk, but that’s not verified. Flight attendants intervened, pulled him back, and said he abused and threatened them after they stopped him.
When the flight landed in Bengaluru, he was detained by airport police, who took his statement and released him after three hours. Police also investigated his social media posts where he claimed to have been illegally detained, and in a since-deleted post, said that the airline’s staff “hijacked the plane” and denied him water, lavatory use and medicine.
He reportedly posted a video accusing police of assault, and saying he’d have taken matters into his own hands if he hadn’t been stopped.
And that wasn’t his first or second controversy of the month. He’s described online as a Google employee or Google software engineer, sometimes in Hyderabad and sometimes Bengaluru. However, police described him as unemployed. It’s not clear whether he worked for Google or for a Google contractor at some point. But there’s also this in March:
@Google @iitbombay
This post is about your employee and Alumni, Utkarsh Shiwmangal Gautam, who works as a Software Engineer at Google in Hyderabad, Telangana. On the 1st of March at about 6.20am in Bandra, Mumbai, he almost knocked my running partner and I down and pic.twitter.com/UofqUBsNh3— Valentina D'Lima (@ValentinaD1979) March 5, 2026
came after us because I yelled at him when that happened. He took a uturn and got onto our side of the road which is the wrong side for vehicles to be on. He began honking at us and reving the engine. He went past us stopped and then we began to record this video.
— Valentina D'Lima (@ValentinaD1979) March 5, 2026
Observe how he walks towards us, with a cigarette in his hand and extremely threatening body language. Also listen carefully to him abusing us while leaving. There was a girl with him who got down and left during the altercation.He was intoxicated and drunk driving a rented car
— Valentina D'Lima (@ValentinaD1979) March 5, 2026
and according to the owner of the car, he ran 3 overspeeding violations that he hasn't even paid for. The car owner has shared those screenshots with the police and us. He refused to pick the calls of both the owner of the car and the police who tried contacting him on the 2nd
— Valentina D'Lima (@ValentinaD1979) March 5, 2026
There’s a famous result that over half of all crime is committed by about 6% of people. So while I am against Delta CEO Ed Bastian’s idea that an airline banning a passenger should mean a ban from all airlines, there’s at least a (frightening) logic to the argument.
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