2011, Smitha & Meenakshi

Disabled get ambulift after hour's fight


Shalini Umachandran, TNN Aug 23, 2011, 01.03pm IST


CHENNAI : Two disabled women who travelled from Delhi to Chennai spent more than an hour arguing with airline staff on Monday when they were refused an ambulift to leave the plane.


Smitha Sadasivan, a wheelchair user with multiple sclerosis, and B Meenakshi, who uses crutches, landed in Chennai from Delhi on Air India flight IC 429 at 1.15pm on Monday. The airline staff said the ambulift — used to raise and lower passengers with limited mobility from an aircraft — was under maintenance and so they would have to carry the women down from the plane.


"The Air India staff and crew said four men would carry the wheelchairs down," said Meenakshi, who is also a member of the Disability Rights Alliance. "The civil aviation rules clearly state that ambulifts should be provided to passengers who need them. Apart from the fact that carrying us violates our dignity, it is also extremely unsafe," she said.


When the women refused to budge for over an hour, the airline staff gave in. "Within 15 minutes the ambulift was at the aircraft," said Sadasivan. "If the situation had been so bad, how did they manage to get the ambulift within 15 minutes? Why did we have to fight for it for an hour," she says.


Air India officials declined to comment immediately. Airport authorities, however, said the airline had two ambulifts, one of which was not working. The Airports Authority of India also maintains an ambulift, which it hires out to airlines for Rs 3,000 per use. An ambulift works on a mechanism similar to the one used to lift catering vans to the aircraft.


"The crew called managers who told us to adjust. They felt we were being adamant, but we explained that we are not comfortable being carried. A Supreme Court order also makes it mandatory to provide the ambulift," said Sadasivan. Both had mentioned that they were disabled and wheelchair users when they booked their tickets the previous day.


Most private airlines do not provide these facilities despite the Persons with Disabilites Act, 1995, stating that disabled people should have equal accessibility to all transport facilities. The directorate general of civil aviation has made ambulifts mandatory at airports. "The women knew their rights so they stood their ground, but rights of ordinary disabled people are violated regularly," said Javed Abidi, convenor of Delhi's Disabled Rights Group, who filed a public interest litigation to make provision of ambulifts mandatory in 1997.


Monday's incident is not an isolated one. On Sunday night, T M N Deepak, who uses crutches, travelled to Chennai on a private airline. He was told he would have to be carried from the aircraft as they did not provide ambulift facilities. "I did not want to be carried as it is undignified and unsafe. I decided to walk but airline stairs are not easy to navigate on crutches," he said.


http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-23/chennai/29918605_1_private-airlines-airline-staff-disabled-women

2011, Keshavji Shah

Jet Airways leaves senior citizen at Mumbai airport boarding gate


A senior citizen booked on a Jet Airways (JA) Mumbai-Bhuj flight was quick to retaliate after he allegedly missed his flight because of the airline’s negligence.


The passenger, who was wheelchair-bound, alleged that the airline staff abandoned him near the boarding gate and later refused to rebook him on another flight or give him a refund.


It was only after he lodged a non-cognisable (NC) offence with the airport police that the airline offered him a refund. The airline, however, maintained that the passenger was missing from the wheelchair when the boarding started and it was not their fault.


On August 11, Kandivli resident Keshavji A Shah, 80, was to fly by Jet Airways (JA) flight 9W 2533 from the Santa Cruz terminal of Mumbai airport.The flight was to leave at 1.10pm and the passenger, accompanied by his son Rupesh Shah, 39, reached the airport at 10.45am.


“My father is old and ailing so we had requested the airline for a wheelchair,” said Rupesh who had come to see him off.


The airline’s staff took Keshavji inside in a wheelchair, completed all the formalities and took him to the boarding gate. “After that, the loader left my father there and disappeared.I had told my father to give me a call once he boarded the flight.I was waiting outside when at 1.15pm he called me and said that he was still sitting inside the terminal and that his flight has left,” he said.


Rupesh informed the airline staff and Keshavji was brought outside the terminal.“We requested the airline to book him on the next flight to Bhuj but they refused. We asked for a refund and they denied it,” he says.


Angry with such treatment the Shahs lodged an NC under section 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian penal code at Santa Cruz airport police station.“After we lodged the police complaint, the airline agreed to offer us a refund. If they are going to treat senior citizens like this, what is the point of even informing them?” asked Rupesh.


http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_jet-airways-leaves-senior-citizen-at-mumbai-airport-boarding-gate_1575043

2011, Mohammed Asif Iqbal

Sign bond to fly, blind exec told


9 Jun 2011


KOLKATA : A high-flying city executive, who has travelled across the world and helped frame disabled-friendly guidelines for Indian airports, hit an air pocket at Patna last week when a private airline insisted he sign a bond before allowing him to board. The apparent reason: he is visually impaired, and was travelling alone.


Md Asif Iqbal, 34, did eventually board the Ranchi-bound Kingfisher Red flight, but only after signing an indemnity bond that cleared the carrier and its employees of any charge should something happen to him during the flight. Iqbal has no ailments. He lost his eyesight at 16 due to a genetic disorder.


But that has never been a hurdle for Iqbal, who did his BCom from St. Xavier's and MBA from Symbiosis. He has been working as principal consultant with PricewaterhouseCoopers since May 2005 and is now engaged in the ambitious Unique Identity Authority of India (UIDAI) project led by former Infosys chief executive Nandan Nilekani. He was in Patna to interview students on behalf of an NGO that will sponsor their two-year stay in the city and coach them for the engineering entrance examination.


Iqbal has lodged a complaint with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), alleging discrimination and harassment. The airline brass has been summoned for an explanation. Iqbal, ironically, had participated in the consultations initiated by the DGCA to make airports disabled-friendly.


DGCA is probing an identical complaint against the airline. Shabnam Mansoori, who is also visually impaired, was not allowed to board a Kingfisher Mumbai-Ahmedabad flight on May 10. Mansoori's two kids were travelling with her.


A Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson told TOI in an email on Wednesday the company regretted the incident and had taken punitive action.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-09/kolkata/29638416_1_disabled-friendly-sign-bond-air-pocket

Airline suspends service agent

Patna, June 14: Kingfisher Airlines today asked Supriya Sagar, a guest service agent at the city airport, to not report to work till further notice in connection with a case of alleged misbehaviour with a visually challenged passenger.

Sagar is the third employee of the airlines to be suspended in this case. On June 9, two other employees of the airlines, Shuddho Ghosh, the airport manager of Kingfisher at Patna, and supervisor Shamim Ahmed were also suspended.

Sources said on May 30, when Mohammad Asif Iqbal, a visually challenged passenger, boarded the Kingfisher Patna-Ranchi-Mumbai flight IT 3571, the ground staff “harassed” him. The flight was scheduled to depart from Patna for Ranchi at 2:05pm.

Iqbal later filed a passenger harassment complaint with the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA). According to the complaint, he was initially denied a boarding pass at the counter at Patna airport as he is visually challenged. After the initial denial, the ground staff of Kingfisher demanded that he sign an indemnity bond stating that he was travelling at his own risk. Only then was he allowed to board the aircraft.

“Initially, I was not given the boarding pass at the Kingfisher counter at Patna airport. I was made to wait while other passengers got their boarding passes cleared. After repeated requests and signing an indemnity bond, which is against DGCA rules, I was finally given the boarding pass and the permission to board the aircraft. Shamim Ahmed, who was the station in-charge at that time, misbehaved with me,” Iqbal told The Telegraph.

Airline sources said Ghosh was not on duty that day. Sources in civil aviation industry claimed that the regulations with respect to boarding of completely visually challenged passengers in Kingfisher aircraft were not very clear. Immediately after the incident, the airlines issued fresh guidelines regarding the boarding of visually impaired passengers, around 5pm on May 30.

Responding to the suspension of the airline employees, Iqbal said, “Some of them misbehaved with me and I endured the unnecessary hassle of signing an indemnity bond. That is the reason I made the complaint. However, I did not want either Ghosh or Supriya to lose their jobs. I am aware of the fact that Ghosh was not on duty that day. But whatever action has been taken against him is an internal matter of the airlines. Moreover, Supriya is a wonderful, kind-hearted and affectionate girl. I believe that it is only because of her that I got the opportunity to board the aircraft that day.”

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1110615/jsp/bihar/story_14113669.jsp

2011, Shabnam Mansuri

Kingfisher crew offloads blind woman with kids

Airline makes them disembark from flight, leaves them unattended for nearly an hour and a half as aircraft takes off without them

21-5-2011

MUMBAI : A private airline made a blind woman and her two children disembark from her connecting flight to Goa and left them unattended for nearly an hour and a half while the plane took off without them.

Adding insult to injury, the airline's staff allegedly told the woman that she could not travel with two kids because she was blind.

Shabnam Mansuri had flown in to Mumbai from Ahmedabad with sons Lukman (7) and 18-month-old Luftaan, and was on her way to Goa when the incident happened

Shabnam Mansuri (35) says the experience has made her realise the fallacy of thinking that she can be treated like everyone else despite her handicap.

On May 10, Mansuri was travelling with her sons Lukman (7) and 18-month-old Luftaan from Ahmedabad to Goa via Mumbai to meet her husband. Her tickets had been booked with Kingfisher Airlines. 

"I boarded the Kingfisher flight from Ahmedabad and reached Mumbai, from where I was supposed to take a connecting flight to Goa. 

I had barely taken a seat in the connecting flight around 12.30 pm when a crew member came and asked me to follow him. He also asked me to take my cabin baggage and kids with me.

Initially, I thought that he must be changing my seat, but realised something was amiss when he took me down some stairs," said Mansuri.

"I asked him why he was making me get off the plane but he refused to answer. When my kids and I got off, they closed the aircraft's doors and took off, leaving us standing there. 

One attendant told me later that I cannot travel with two kids as I am blind. I was shocked," she added. 

She kept telling the attendant that she had two young kids and needed to meet her husband in Goa, but to no avail.

Finally, close to 2 pm, a staff member came and told her that they would arrange for her to board a 4.40 pm flight to Goa.

"I did not want to bank on them anymore. I called my husband and he arranged for us to board another airline's 3.10 pm flight. 

My question is, how can they let me travel from Ahmedabad to Mumbai without any trouble and then say I cannot travel with two kids from Mumbai to Goa? I was travelling on the same airline in both cases," said Mansuri.

She said the experience was one of the worst she's had in her life. "I am blind but that doesn't mean they have the right to discriminate against me. 

I had paid the full fare and if they had some problems, they should have informed me before I boarded. My elder son is so traumatised by the incident, he says he does not want to fly anymore."

Husband reacts

Mansuri's husband, Samir, who is the Chairman of Blinds Dream, an NGO, wrote a letter to the airline to complain about the treatment meted out to her. 

A portion of the letter states, "Kingfisher officials told my wife that if she thought they were cruel, she shouldn't travel with them anymore."

"What the Kingfisher staff did to my wife is shameful. They had done something similar with me in 2005 (see box) and I will not let them get away this time. 

Flight tickets of Shabnam Mansuri and her two sons Lukman and Luftaan

They have replied to my letter but that is not enough. I will take this issue to the consumer court and will go to the Supreme Court if need be.

This is an insult to me and my family and I will not tolerate it under any circumstances," said Samir.

He alleged that he had come to know that his wife was made to disembark because of a VIP booking at the last moment, which led to the flight being overbooked. 

"If their company cannot handle blind people, they should declare that visually challenged people are not allowed to fly Kingfisher," he added. 

The Other Side

When MiD DAY contacted Kingfisher Airlines, they said they regretted the incident. Prakash Mirpuri, vice-president, corporate communications, Kingfisher Airlines Limited, said, "We are investigating the matter. 

In the meantime, we would like to convey our deep regret for the inconvenience that may have been caused inadvertently to our valued guests."

Earlier too

Dr Samir Mansuri, Shabnam's husband and a celebrity doctor who is also blind, had allegedly been insulted by Kingfisher Airlines in 2005 as well. According to Samir, he was travelling from Mumbai to Ahmedabad that year. 

"I was first in the queue to board the flight, but I was made to wait till all the other passengers boarded. When I went inside, they forced me to visit a washroom outside the aircraft even when I did not want to go.

They said they were doing that so I would't have to visit the airplane's loo when we were airborne. The crew told me that they could not allow me to use the aircraft's washroom as I am blind and there were female crew members on board," said Samir.

"I felt insulted and raised the issue in the media. Vijay Mallya then issued an apology for the indecent behaviour on the airline's part," he added.

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2011/may/210511-Shabnam-Mansuri-Kingfisher-crew-blind-woman-disembark-Airline-mumbai.htm

2010, Desikaran

Man denied wheelchair at T3


NEW DELHI : Even as airline officials crib about the huge area of terminal 3, a 77-year-old passenger, who had specifically requested for a wheelchair, was forced to walk the entire length of the terminal from the boarding gate to the car park when no arrangements had been made for him.


Desikaran, who had flown into Delhi from Chennai on an Air India flight to attend a Food Standard and Safety Authority of India conference, said walking is a highly-painful exercise for him because of which he had specially asked for a wheelchair when booking his ticket. "A wheelchair was provided in Chennai but nothing in Delhi. I landed at 11.45pm and had to walk all the way to the car park. There was a lady passenger with a similar request who also had to walk all the way," he said.


http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-11-10/delhi/28212962_1_wheelchair-car-park-air-india-flight

2010, Rizwan

Mentally challenged person 'grounded' by low-cost carrier


May 5, 2010


LUCKNOW : The alleged insensitivity shown by a prominent low-cost carrier in refusing to let a mentally disabled person board a flight led to a high-pitched drama at Amausi airport on Tuesday.


Talking to TOI from Mumbai, Nusrat Fatima Jafri said that her mother and sister were escorting her brother Rizwan (37), who is mentally challenged after his cerebrum was damaged when he was three days old.


While at the counter, the Indigo airlines staff refused to give them the boarding pass. They kept on saying that he (Rizwan) will be a "threat to other passengers" and that they could not allow them to board the flight as per the Indigo airlines policy, Jafri said, adding that this was despite the fact that they were carrying a medical certificate for the same. "Rizwan has travelled by air twice before, I don't know why the Indigo people refused to let them board the flight," she said.


The supervisor at Indigo counter, Rahul Gupta, refused to let them check in and when they asked him to give the reason in writing, he went off asking his juniors to "tackle" them, an indignant Nusrat said.


"However, it was the heights of rudeness when after the flight had taken off, they instead gave us a note claiming that we had not been allowed to board the flight as we had arrived late," Rizwan's sister Shaheen said. Shaheen, who was accompanying Rizwan for the Indigo airlines flight 6E-341, said that they had reached at 11.45 am and were at the counter by 12 noon. If we were late, how could they allow another passenger who arrived after us to board the flight? asked Shaheen.


When contacted, Indigo station incharge, Sagar denied the allegations, saying that the passengers arrived late and since they were refused permission to board the flight, they were just trying to harass the airlines.


"They are lying, they reported for check-in at 12.20 pm, while we had closed our counters at 12.10 pm," Sagar said.


http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-05-05/lucknow/28298674_1_indigo-airlines-flight-rizwan

2009, Hari Venkat

Booked himself on wheelchair, passenger denied flight


Posted: Mar 17, 2009 at 0128 hrs IST


He says luggage ejected, officials said no aide to take him on board; airline says he was in washroom before takeoff


Mumbai : A wheelchair-bound passenger alleged that he was denied entry to a flight and his luggage ejected on Sunday evening, even though he had informed the airline while booking his ticket that he would be on a wheelchair.


Hari Venkat (38) had booked a Go Air flight from Mumbai to Kochi to undergo spinal treatment. He cannot walk.


Go Air denied the allegation, saying Venkat was not flown because he had insisted on using the washroom minutes before takeoff. Venkat eventually left on a Spice Jet flight to Kochi the next morning.


His sister Anju said the Go Air staff told him, “We’ll deplane your luggage as we don’t have an assistant to take you on a wheelchair.”


Only last week, Newsline reported that a woman passenger had been asked to remove her salwar as she was wearing metallic calipers. While the woman managed to fight her way through and refused to remove her salwar, Venkat was helpless as he could not board the aircraft without aid from the airline’s helpers.


Venkat reached the airport at 3:15 for a 4:40 flight. He got the boarding pass; it was after he had proceeded towards security check that the ordeal began.


“It was terrible the way they treated me. When I arrived at the terminal, they had some problems with their systems and that delayed the boarding pass. And the assistant they gave me was an inept 18-year-old,” Venkat said from Kochi.


“At the security check I needed my boarding card, so I had to wait while the assistant they provided me kept chatting with someone. Eventually I had to shout to get myself through security check. By the time I reached the gate, an executive told me I couldn’t get in.”


Anju said passengers behind her brother passed by him and got on the aircraft while Hari waited for the airline’s assistant to take him on board. “After he was refused entry, he called up and said that they (airline staff) did not even apologise or offer a reimbursement,” said Anju.


The flight was not delayed. When Venkat was told he could not fly, it was 3:30pm, with over an hour left for takeoff.


Hari said an airline executive told him, “Talk to the supervisor as I don’t work for you.”


A circular dated May 1, 2008, from the DGCA to all passenger airlines says, “No airline shall refuse to carry persons with disability or persons with reduced mobility and their assistive aids/devices, escorts and guide dogs including their presence in the cabin, provided such persons or their representatives, at the time of booking and /or check-in for travel, inform the airlines of their requirement.”


Go Air had an explanation: “The passenger had a GoAir porter for assistance all through check-in and then into the security hold. The passenger insisted on using the washroom even though they were repeatedly informed about the delay that they were causing to the flight. All mandatory on-air and personal requests were made. However, the passenger showed no inclination to hasten the boarding process and hence it resulted in a gate no-show, since the flight was ready for take off,” said a spokesperson for the airline.


http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/booked-himself-on-wheelchair-passenger-denied-flight/435357/