Coronavirus: Indian airline SpiceJet feels heat as couple flout rules with mid-air ‘wedding’ attended by 160 people

Viral footage showing ceremony with more than three times the number of guests allowed on land prompts turbulence on social media

Aviation regulator has directed the airline to make a formal complaint against the passengers, many of whom ignored mask-wearing protocols

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The groom, Rakesh, and his bride, Dakshina.

Published: 10:30pm, 26 May 2021Updated: 3:55am, 27 May 2021

The Indian airline SpiceJet is feeling the heat after a young couple chartered one of its jets for a mid-air wedding ceremony with more than 160 guests, many of whom flouted Covid-19 restrictions.

Photographs and video footage of the wedding have gone viral on social media, prompting widespread criticism of the couple and the Indian aviation regulator to de-roster the crew and direct the airline to make a formal complaint against the passengers.

Critics say the ceremony on Sunday was particularly insensitive given India is grappling with a devastating second wave of Covid-19 pandemic in which it has been reporting more than 200,000 infections per day. The couple’s hometown of Madurai, in the state of Tamil Nadu, is reporting more than 1,300 cases a day, while the state itself reported more than 34,000 cases and 468 Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday alone

Epidemiologist Jayaprakash Muliyil said that it was “unsafe” to gather in such a large number in a closed space where people were either wearing the masks below the chin or not wearing them at all.

“Since there is no clarity over whether the passengers took a test before boarding the flight, it is difficult to say that none of them carried the infection,” Muliyil said. “It was also not fair to expose the crew members to the risk.”

In one video of the ceremony, the groom, Rakesh, ties a sacred thread around the neck of the bride, Dakshina, while the Bangalore-bound plane flies over the revered Meenakshi Amman Temple in Tamil Nadu.