IndiGo Cabin Crew Member Kainoor Ardeshir Mistry Dies After Mumbai Road Accident, Raising Questions About Airline Cab Safety
MUMBAI: Kainoor Ardeshir Mistry, a 32-year-old IndiGo cabin crew member, died on Saturday while undergoing treatment for serious head injuries sustained in a road accident on September 18 in Borivali East. She is survived by her eight-year-old son, Kiaan.
Mistry, a Mira Road resident, was returning home from work in a Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire hired by IndiGo from the Mayursh Tour and Travel company when the driver, Vijay Khose (25), allegedly lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a bridge ledge on the Western Express Highway. The accident occurred at 5:45 am near the Blue Sky Co-operative Society on the highway’s northbound carriageway. According to police, Khose said he lost control while attempting to drive over a bridge ridge; he was unhurt, while Mistry, seated in the rear, suffered serious head injuries. Khose, also a Mira Road resident, took Mistry to Bhakti Vedanta Hospital in Mira Road with the help of bystanders, where she died on Saturday evening.
Article by V Narayan | Times of India
Kasturba Marg police initially booked Khose for an act endangering life or personal safety and rash driving on a public way. Following Mistry’s death, police invoked Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Section 106(1), covering death by negligence, and served Khose with a notice to appear for questioning. A police officer said Khose was not intoxicated at the time and did not flee the scene, and that he knew the locality and its hospitals. Police said a second notice would not be issued in the case.
Mistry was known on social media for posting Instagram reels about her life as an air hostess, dancer and mother to her son, and for frequently raising consumer complaints on X. Following her death, tributes and posts began circulating on social media identifying her as Kainoor Ardeshir Mistry and describing her as a mother, a daughter and a devoted employee.
Those social media posts have also reignited a broader conversation about the safety of third-party cab services used by airlines to transport crew to and from work, particularly for early-morning and late-night shifts. Commenting on the accident, Manisha Singhal wrote: “Airlines talk a lot about ‘girl power.’ But are they listening to what their crew say about third-party cab providers? Driver behaviour. Safety. Reckless driving. Poor-quality cabs. Haven’t we all heard about basement scuffles that follow cab drivers’ rude or uncouth behaviour, where male crew members intervened, took matters into their own hands on behalf of colleagues? And loss of lives with no accountability pinned. Is there a proper redressal system? A performance audit? Accountability? Or does the contract simply go to the cheapest bidder? There was a reason airlines once operated their own crew cabs. Safety was one of them.” She added that many cab drivers are overstretched by their shift patterns, moving straight from night shifts into morning ones, and that distracted driving compounds the risk, and voiced hope that IndiGo would compensate substantially for the welfare of Mistry’s son.
Another commenter, Garothman Behest Hojoji, placed the accident in a wider statistical context, noting that global air accidents claim an estimated 70 to 250 lives a year worldwide, while road accidents in India alone claim roughly 1.5 lakh lives annually. “Such a tragic reminder of our road safety crisis,” the post read. “Millions fly safely every year, but the commute from the airport remains a hidden hazard.”
IndiGo has not yet issued a public statement on the accident or on any support being extended to Mistry’s family.