NEW DELHI: Urvashi Prasad, a prominent public health advocate and former NITI Aayog official, has raised serious concerns about aircraft maintenance after finding broken seats in the business class of an Air India Mumbai-Delhi flight on Sunday.
Urvashi, a former lateral entrant to NITI Aayog who also served on the Government of India’s Covid Management Core Team, took to social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to share her experience aboard flight AI2996.

Prasad, who is also a Stage 4 cancer survivor, highlighted the poor condition of her seat on what was reportedly a Vistara aircraft operated under the Air India banner.
“Broken seats in business class in @airindia flight AI2996 Bombay to Delhi… can only hope the rest of the plane is working,” she wrote, posting a photos of the damaged seat.
Air India’s customer support responded online, assuring her that her feedback would be addressed. However, Prasad pushed back on the response, noting that the issue goes beyond a surface-level fix.
“It’s not just about addressing through quick fixes like tape, which is what was done eventually. Your aircrafts shouldn’t be falling apart like this,” she wrote in a follow-up post.
In a subsequent tweet, she clarified that the aircraft in question was a Vistara plane. “This is about bare minimum maintenance being done at least,” she added.