India Puts the Lens Cap Back on In-Flight Photography

India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation India is clamping down on in-flight photography, and is promising strict enforcement of a rule that has been in effect for several years.

“No person shall take, or cause or permit to be taken, a Government aerodrome or from an aircraft in flight, any photograph except in accordance and subject to the terms and conditions of a permission in writing granted by the Director-General, a Joint Director General, a Deputy Director-General or the Director of Regulations and Information of the Civil Aviation Department,” the agency said on Twitter.

The renewed effort to enforce the long-standing policy came after news crews following a Bollywood star on an IndiGo Airlines flight crowded into the aisle with cameras and microphones while the aircraft was taxiing.

The penalty for any violation of the rule is that the airline in question will have the route on which the incident occurred suspended for two weeks.

The deputy director general of the agency, Sunil Kumar, later issued a statement “clarifying” the policy, and said that “a bonafide passenger” is permitted to take still photos and video from inside the aircraft as long as it does not “imperil or compromise air safety.”

(Photo: Accura Media Group)