A Flight of Horror: How IndiGo Failed Rhea Chaterji When She Needed Support Most

Air travel is meant to provide safety, professionalism, and respect for every passenger. Yet for Rhea Chaterji — a respected professional, Co-Founder at Safegold, and a law graduate from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) — a simple late-night Flight with IndiGo on Friday, November 8th turned into a deeply traumatic experience.

What should have been a routine journey left her feeling Violated, humiliated, and completely unsupported.

A Violation of Privacy

Before takeoff, Rhea went to use the forward washroom. The Door was unlocked when she entered, and she locked it securely from inside. Moments later, there was a knock, which she replied to. A second knock followed, and again she responded — louder this time.

But before she could even finish speaking, the Door was forcibly opened.

To her shock, the First Officer of the Flight — a senior crew member responsible for passengers’ safety — stood staring at her in a moment of complete vulnerability. His only reaction was a casual “oh,” before shutting the Door.

For Rhea, this was not an accident. It was a profound Violation of her privacy and dignity in a space where she should have felt safe.

Trapped in Fear and Revulsion

The minutes that followed were excruciating. Instead of recognizing the severity of what had happened, the female Flight attendants minimized the incident, telling her it was an “inconvenience” and insisting that the First Officer “hadn’t seen anything.”

But Rhea knew better — she had felt the gaze.

For the next 1.5 hours, she was forced to remain in her seat, overwhelmed with shame and revulsion in her own body, wishing she could disappear. She asked the crew not to speak to her about it, yet they persisted, offering hollow reassurances instead of compassion.

To make matters worse, she was told that if she wanted to escalate the complaint, she would need to enter the cockpit to meet the Captain and the very same First Officer who had Violated her dignity. For any woman, the idea of being enclosed in a small space with two men — one of whom had just stripped her of privacy — was terrifying.

A Hollow Corporate Response

Once home, still shaken, Rhea immediately wrote to IndiGo’s top leadership, including their CEO, expecting acknowledgment, empathy, and accountability.

What she received instead was a box-ticking exercise.

IndiGo repeatedly referred to the incident as an “inconvenience.”
They said the First Officer expressed “profound remorse” — but never directly to Rhea herself.
They offered her a refund of her airfare and a few vouchers, as if her trauma and dignity could be compensated with coupons.

Her conclusion was painfully clear:

“The price of a woman’s dignity according to IndiGo is the refund of the airfare and a little over half that sum in airline vouchers.”

Why This Matters

Rhea Chaterji is not just any passenger. She is a law graduate from LSE and a business leader with global experience. If someone with her professional background and platform can be dismissed, what hope is there for everyday women, young girls, or vulnerable passengers without a voice?

This is not about compensation. This is about:

Privacy: The right of every passenger to feel safe in confined spaces.
Accountability: The duty of airlines to take ownership when crew members fail.
Support: The basic expectation that victims will be treated with empathy, not gaslighting.

By reducing such a critical Violation to an “inconvenience,” IndiGo has demonstrated a shocking lack of care for passenger dignity.

Standing With the Victim

Rhea’s courage in sharing her experience is not just about her own ordeal. It is a voice for all women who have felt unsafe, unheard, or unseen in spaces where they should have been protected.

Her story is a wake-up call to the aviation industry: dignity and safety cannot be treated as afterthoughts.

Until airlines like IndiGo recognize the human impact of such incidents — beyond refunds and vouchers — passengers, especially women, will continue to carry the burden of vulnerability at 35,000 feet.

👉 Rhea Chaterji did not deserve this. No passenger does. This is not an inconvenience. This is a Violation.

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