A man who went missing after suffering a panic attack and being assaulted onboard an IndiGo flight has been located nearly 800 kilometres away from Kolkata, at a railway station in Assam’s Barpeta district.

Hussain Ahmed Majumdar, 32, a hotel worker from Assam’s Cachar district, had boarded an IndiGo flight 6E-138 from Mumbai to Silchar with a scheduled layover in Kolkata. But during the journey, he experienced a panic attack and had to be assisted by the cabin crew.

As flight attendants escorted him down the aisle, another passenger, Hafijul Rahman, suddenly slapped him. A video of the incident, widely circulated on social media, shows Rahman striking Majumdar and later justifying his actions by claiming the situation was causing him “problems.”

After the plane landed in Kolkata, Rahman was detained by police but released shortly afterwards. Majumdar, who was supposed to catch a connecting flight to Silchar the following day, also left the airport, but never reached his destination.

Unaware of the in-flight incident, Majumdar’s family went to receive him at Silchar airport on Friday. When he didn’t arrive, they attempted to reach him, only to find his phone switched off. Alarmed by the viral video and his unresponsiveness, his father, Abdul Mannan Majumdar, filed a missing person’s report.

An investigation revealed that Majumdar had not boarded his connecting flight to Silchar, nor had he taken any other flight out of Kolkata. After an anxious search that stretched across several states, authorities finally traced him to Barpeta railway station, around 400 km from Silchar, according to an NDTV report. 

“He seemed to be in poor health,” an official confirmed, adding that he is now being escorted home to receive care.

The shocking incident has sparked conversations about passenger conduct and mental health awareness in transit. In response, IndiGo has imposed a flying ban on Rahman.

“The safety and well-being of our customers and crew remain our foremost priority,” IndiGo said in a statement. “In line with our commitment to discourage such unruly behaviour onboard flights, the individual has been suspended from flying on any IndiGo flights, in accordance with regulatory provisions.”