KOLKATA: In a first at Kolkata airport , a passenger was refused boarding for the second day in succession for turning up in an inebriated condition. He finally managed to travel on Thursday in his third attempt when airline staff found him sober enough to board the aircraft.On Wednesday evening, the middle-aged passenger who claimed he worked in a private firm of Gurgaon and was visiting Kolkata — his hometown — on the occasion of Durga Puja , arrived at the airport at 7.30pm to take the Jet Airways flight 9W 497 that was scheduled to depart at 9.10pm.Sources said the flier reeked of alcohol and was unsteady on his feet. When he was asked to produce the flight ticket at the check-in desk, he failed to do so. On Tuesday evening, too, he had emptied the contents of his travel bag on the counter but failed to find the ticket for 20 minutes. When he finally did, it turned out that he was booked on a SpiceJet flight (SG 264) and not Jet Airways.Wary of the passenger’s behaviour the previous evening when he had turned abusive and forced the airline to lodge a complaint that led to his arrest, Jet Airways officials alerted CISF officers on duty.“We received a call from Jet Airways at 7.49pm and reached a minute later. Unlike Tuesday, he didn’t create a ruckus. When we asked him to leave, he did so without fuss,” a CISF officer said.Recounting how difficult the situation had been the previous evening, the CISF officer said the passenger had continued to berate a senior Jet Airways official and abused him continuously. “We had received a call from Jet Airways at 8.33pm and were there at 8.43pm. Since that time, we monitored the situation continuously. When our quick response team was summoned once he became more abusive and began disturbing other passengers, he allegedly cried out: ‘You gunman, you want to shoot me? Shoot me!’ We had to then take him to a side and restrain him,” the officer recounted.Airport officials said they had never come across an instance of a passenger making the same mistake twice in two days. “He could not board the flight on Tuesday because he had a drink too many. He had stayed over at a hotel. We had hoped he would be sober when he reported for Wednesday’s flight but we were shocked to see him inebriated yet again,” an official said.On Thursday, the passenger finally managed to reach the airport sober and flew out on Air India flight AI 701 that departed at 5.30pm. Sources said the passenger on seat 14C was quiet and kept to himself during the two-hour flight.