Airlines and Disability
from: Aiswarya Rao aiswarya.rao@gmail.com
to: customerrelations@jetairways.com
cc: das@dgca.nic.in, dri@dgca.nic.in, scd@tn.nic.in
date: Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 4:32 AM
subject: Incident on 9W 0739 – 25th Feb 09
Sir/Madam,
I boarded Jet Airways flight no: 9W 0739 on 25th February 09 from Delhi to Chennai at about 10:30 p.m. ( 3 hours delayed).
I am a physically challenged person and mobile with a pair of calipers and crutches. I was travelling alone and I requested wheelchair assisstance for alighting the flight of steps that lead to the aircraft, as I usually do whenever I fly.
I was assigned seat 25D on that day. This is the last but one row from the rear exit. I requested the stewardess whether I may sit in the last row as it had more leg room. She obliged as there were no one seated there already and said that she would request anyone who may turn up for the seat to exchange with me. I was happy with the assisstance given and I sat in the window seat on the right side -last row. I sat by the window so that I may enjoy the view of the city lights when we take off and land. It is also less bothersome to other passengers if they have to cross over my stretched legs to move to seats inside.
After everyone had boarded, I discovered that the seat I was sitting in was not assigned to anybody. In about 5 minutes one of the stewards – Mr. Mickey, came up to me and asked me to shift to the aisle seat. I overheard conversation between him and his supervisor just minutes ago that ‘the lady in the wheelchair’ needs to be seated in the aisle seat. When I asked him the reason, why I should shift to the aisle seat and he said that it was Jet Airways Safety
Requirement, that disabled passengers be seated only in the aisle seats. I wondered why, and he answered that it was so that in an emeregency if a disabled passenger has to be evacuated, this seating will enable that they are evacuated.
I thought that the explanation was incredulous, as I have travelled on numerous occassions previously, several times at the window and I have never been given this reason for not being seated at the window. I clarified that I am not a wheelchair bound person and that the seating policy if it did exist did not apply to me, as I would be able to move out myself in the event of an emergency. Mr. Mickey said that he would get back to me. I smiled.
In a few minutes he returned with the same line, asking me to get up and to be seated in the aisle. Then he asked” What is your problem?” I said that I had “no problem”. I further clarified that I had polio myelitis. He asked me to shift my seat. I declined for the reason that I had already given him. He smiled and said that he understood and said that he would get back again.
In returned again in a few more minutes and asked me very politely, if I could just get up and sit in the aisle for the take off and then get back to the window seat after that. I was frankly irritated by this time. But I put up a quiet front and again asked why I should do so, as it is causing me a lot of discomfort. He agreed it was causing discomfort, apologised for the same, but insisted that I shift myself into the aisle seat. I was really curious this time and I asked him again what this security requirement is all about. He simply maintained that it was for all passengers who used a wheel chair for getting up the aircraft it was the Jet Airways seating policy and a safety regulation.
I told him to show me the safety instruction on seating passengers who used a wheelchair to be seated by the aisle only and not at the window. Until then I would not shift.
After that I was not bothered. Subsequently Mr. Mickey was courteous to me and served me my dinner without reference to the previous conversation.
Is it really Jet Airways seating policy to seat “wheelchair passengers” only in the aisle and are they discriminated from sitting near the window seat? Also there is a big difference between ‘wheelchair bound’ passengers and passengers who use a wheelchair only in airports for transport into the aircraft. Again, I am not a ‘lady in the wheelchair’, as identified by one of the main steward to Mr. Mickey which I overheard.
I hope Jet Airways is more sensitive to physically challenged passengers. I am also a member of the Tamilnadu State Coordination Committee for the Disabled and this attitude of airlines crew is disturbing.
Further the Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR) Section 3 Series ‘M’ Part I – Carriage of Physically Challenged passengers by Air issued by the Office of the Director General of Civil Aviation, New Delhi (dated 1st May 2008) states in its clause 7. 2.1 that “passengers with reduced mobility including the blind shall not be restricted to any particular cabin or seating areas, except when it is done for safety of passengers and avoid interference with evacuations or due to physical limitations of the aircraft”. If at all, I was seated away from the exit near the window and would not be an interference to evacuations!!
Expecting a clarification on the seating policy of Jet Airways which if it does exist, appears to be very unfair and going against the CAR issued by the DGCA.
sincerely,
Aiswarya
from: customerrelations@jetairways.comto: aiswarya.rao@gmail.comdate: Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 10:58 AMsubject: Fw: Incident on 9W 0739 – 25th Feb 09mailed-by: jetairways.com
Dear Ms Rao,This mail is with reference to youremail of date.Kindly allow us to examine the issueraised by you and we will surely revert to youMay we kindly request you to bear withus in the interim period.Yours Sincerely
R Viswanathan Customer Relations
—– Forwarded by CustomerRelations/Litolier/Jetairways on 02/27/2009 10:51 AM —–
Airport bus ferrying flier on wheelchair catches fire
Feb 8, 2009
MUMBAI : An airport minibus, which was ferrying a wheelchair-bound passenger, caught fire just as it reached the arrival terminal of Mumbai airport on Saturday morning. However, no one was injured in the incident.
The passenger, who arrived on a Hyderabad-Mumbai Kingfisher Red flight, was being taken to the arrival terminal when a short-circuit occurred in the battery compartment of the bus, leading to the fire.
"The driver used the fire extinguisher, but was unable to douse it. The glass door of the bus was jammed and had to be broken to pull the passenger out. The fire started around 7.10 am and was extinguished by 7.19 am,'' a Mumbai International Airport Pvt Ltd spokesperson said. "The distance between the aircraft and the arrival area was short. The passenger was escorted by our personnel, who broke open the glass door,'' said a Kingfisher Airlines spokesperson.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-02-08/mumbai/28000187_1_airport-bus-arrival-terminal-extinguisher
Physically challenged activist sues airline
Neha Bhayana, Hindustan Times
Mumbai, July 25, 2008
When Shivani Gupta (38), a wheelchair-bound Delhi resident, took an Indian flight to Mumbai on June 16, she was not prepared for what lay ahead. Not only was she physically carried to her flight seat in Delhi, because there was no narrow wheelchair for the aircraft’s aisle, she was also charged Rs 1,685 for an ambulift, (a van with a special lift for the disabled) to board the return flight from Mumbai.
Gupta, an activist for the rights of the physically challenged, filed a complaint against Indian, the Mumbai International Airport Limited and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The Office of the Chief Commissioner for Persons with Disabilities, vested with powers of a civil court to hear complaints regarding the rights of the physically challenged, issued a show-cause notice to the authorities concerned.
“I felt humiliated and helpless when I was carried by the staff. They were not trained to handle people with disabilities and I sustained bruises on my shoulders. I could not use the toilet because there was no aisle chair,” said Gupta.
An Indian spokesperson said: “We provided a free ambulift at Delhi airport because we have our own service there. But in Mumbai, we had to hire an ambulift from the airport authority. Since they charged us for it, we had to recover the cost from the passenger,” said Jitendra Bhargava, Air India’s director (communications).
According to a May 1 directive from DGCA, charges may be levied for human assistance but the use of aids and appliances to access the aircraft are to be provided free to physically challenged passengers. The fact that Indian charged Gupta Rs 1,685 for the ambulift was in direct breach of this directive.
Gupta had pointed out the directive to the airline staff. “But the staff told me that they had not received any written information about the new law,” she said.
Spokesperson for Mumbai International Airport Limited Manish Kalghatgi said: “Facilitation of passage to the aircraft is the responsibility of the airline, not us.”
When Bhargava was asked why a narrow wheelchair was not available for the aircraft’s aisle, he said: “When passengers can’t go up to their seats, they are escorted. Since the passenger has made a complaint, we will argue the case when the hearing takes place.”
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/HT-Story/Physically-challenged-activist-sues-airline/Article1-326396.aspx
I finally wrote on the form, my hands shaking: ‘Main Bimaar Nahin Hoon’
Salil Chaturvedi Is 39 years old. He acts in a children’s television serial, writes and designs for civil rights organisations and lives in Delhi
THERE WAS SO much I wanted to say to her but all I could manage was a sorry “So?” I wanted to tell her that I recently acted in a play directed by Feisal Alkazi. I wanted to tell her that sometimes children come up to me and asked, their eyes brimming with excitement, “Are you Jugadoo?” That’s the character I play in Galli Galli Sim Sim, the Indian adaptation of Sesame Street. I wanted to tell her that she was hurting me and breaking my spirit, but all I could manage was a befuddled stammer and a “S... S ...So?”
It was a clinching argument, as far as she was concerned. “But you are on a wheelchair, aren’t you?” she’d said. Since I was on a wheelchair, I was a sick person and I would have to sign the form that was meant to be signed by “sick” people when they boarded a plane. “But I’m not sick,” I said. “See, I’m travelling independently.” “But what are you sitting on? A wheelchair!” she chided me.
The face of the Brigadier flashed through my mind. “You’re still around,” I thought to myself. After all these years, you’re still around. You’re dressed as a ground staff member of SpiceJet, you’ve changed your gender and you’ve changed your age, but you’re still around. The retired Brigadier had been working at the Delhi Lawn Tennis Association (DLTA). I had made a presentation to Muktesh Pant, who used to be the CEO of Reebok at that time. He had been excited about the tournament and had decided to pay for the airfare and to kit the two-member team. The kit was sent directly to DLTA (although I knew its contents) and when we received it, I found that the jogging shoes were missing. So I asked the Brigadier about them. “But you are on a wheelchair!” he said. “So you won’t need to jog.” It had hurt then, too — for someone to look you straight in the eye and say you were lesser because you were on a wheelchair.
Back to the SpiceJet counter at Delhi airport. Since I insisted on not signing the form, the lady went to her senior, a young man who spoke to me like someone speaks to a child. “You will not board the flight if you don’t sign this form,” he said. Here I was, parked in a corner behind the desk, the other passengers wondering about my stubbornness. I felt everyone was against me. The whole damn system was singling me out. I finally wrote on the form in large letters, my hands shaking uncontrollably: “Main Bimaar Nahin Hoon” (I am not sick) and I refused to sign.
On the way back from Chennai it was nicer, but only for a while. I didn’t have to sign a form and the supervisor, on his own initiative, kept the seat next to me empty so I could put my legs up if I wanted to get more comfortable. Perhaps this flight will be different, I thought. But things changed quickly. I insisted that they board me before other passengers, as was the international norm. But they didn’t and I was carried down the aisle by two untrained porters, who carried me like a sack of potatoes while I tried to keep my trousers from slipping and closed my eyes to save myself from the embarrassment as all passengers turned their heads to look at me.
As the plane started its descent at Delhi I asked the air-hostess to make sure that my personal wheelchair was brought to the aircraft so I could sit on it directly. But the wheelchair was taken to arrivals, instead. It was midnight and I was exhausted, but the body pumped in some adrenalin to wake me up. The flight steward shook his head at my stubbornness. “Why can’t you use the airline chair?” he asked me. “It’s against the rules to give your chair from the hold.” That was a new one. How could I tell this clean-shaven, smart, cheerful young man that a wheelchair is not a wheelchair is not a wheelchair. He wouldn’t understand how I had spent the last two months recovering from a fall at the Bombay airport because I was on an airline wheelchair.
During the flight I had been re-reading Ben Okri’s Songs of Enchantment and had spent most of my flight mulling over one line that had sprung up from the page. “Love is the real power,” Azaro’s father says to him in the novel. It had held me in trance because of the magical way the line had been set up in the novel. I asked Ben Okri, as I waited in the aircraft, security staff and flight attendants irritated by my insistence, “How does one love all this, Ben?”
I thought about my wife, waiting for me at the arrival for the past two hours. For no reason I suddenly recalled how she stood on top of the bed so I could reach the end of her sari and adjust it for her. And I felt relieved and smiled to myself. Love, indeed, is the real power that guides us through our lives. SpiceJet too needs to learn how to love. So what if I’m in a wheelchair? •
http://www.tehelka.com/story_main39.asp?filename=hub280608personalhistory.asp
Paraplegic abandoned in aircraft
25/5/2008
It was a rather turbulent flight for paraplegic tennis player Salil Chaturvedi, who represented India in wheelchair tennis at the Australian Open in Melbourne. On Friday night’s Chennai-to-Delhi SpiceJet flight, he was not provided his wheelchair to disembark from the aircraft and was left cramped in his seat for over an hour.
On Thursday, when Chaturvedi flew SpiceJet to Chennai, he was neither offered priority boarding nor an aisle chair to board the plane. His urine bag was also yanked off. He told HT, “I was carried along the aisle by untrained porters like a sack of potatoes, while I tried to keep my trousers from slipping and closed my eyes to save myself from the embarrassment, as all passengers turned to look at me.”
The Directorate General of Civil Aviation rulebook, effective from May 1, stipulates that a passenger’s wheelchair should be returned to him at the time of disembarking. It is mandatory for every operator to provide ambulifts to enable disabled passengers embark/disembark the aircraft. But despite this, the crew insisted that Chaturvedi use the airline wheelchair. “They wouldn’t understand how I have spent the last two months recovering from an airline wheelchair fall at the Bombay airport,” Chaturvedi said.
SpiceJet regional manager (north) Rahul Bhatkoti said, “We have apologised to the passenger and will take corrective action. Clearly, the crew lacked awareness.” Chaturvedi, who has acted in a Feisal Alkazi play and the Indian adaptation of Sesame Street, was offered Coke after the trauma ended. “I have stopped drinking Coke. Not wanting to hurt their sensibilities, I took a sip and threw the rest when they weren’t looking,” he said.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/312971.aspx
Private airline offloads wheelchair-bound man
Rema Nagarajan, TNN Jun 19, 2007, 01.01am IST
NEW DELHI: When NGO activist Rajiv Rajan, a cerebral palsy patient, was invited from Chennai to attend an urgent meeting in Delhi, little did he know of the airlines' bias against the disabled.
He uses a wheelchair and had flown earlier. But not this time. Rajan was booked to fly on an Air Sahara flight on Monday morning. But he was not allowed to board the aircraft by the airline staff as it deemed that he was not fit to fly and that he needed an escort or a "fitness to fly" certificate. Rajan explained he was a frequent flyer, but the staff wouldn't relent.
The staff of the airline - which has been taken over by Jet Airways and internally branded as Jet Lite - demanded to see the boarding passes of Rajan's previous air-trips and tried to push his wheelchair out of the airline office.
Rajan told TOI: "They even called in the police to send me out of the airport. A couple of policemen recognised me as a frequent flyer and tried to intervene on my behalf but the airline staff refused to listen."
And the flight (S2-142), scheduled at 6.35 am, took off leaving Rajan behind. Rajan, a sub-committee member of the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities had been invited to a Trust meeting in Delhi.
The meeting was to discuss and plan national level training for local level committee members across 593 districts of the country - Rajan even explained the purpose of his travel to the airline staff, but to no avail.
After the scheduled flight left, and upon Rajan's insistence, the airline staff finally got in touch with the director of Rajan's NGO, Vidya Sagar, which works with children and young adults with neurological impairment. Finally, light dawned upon them and they offered to fly him by a different airline. However, Spice Jet which was approached, refused to issue him a ticket.
When contacted by TOI, a Jet spokesman claimed that Sahara was actually not under Jet's administrative control.
He, however, later offered to give a reaction to the incident the next day. A Spice Jet spokesman denied the incident altogether.
He said no wheelchair passenger had been denied a ticket by the airline on Monday. An angry convener of the Disability Rights Group, Javed Abidi, said: "The conduct of the employees of Air Sahara and Spice Jet amounts to violation of Rajan's constitutional rights to a life of dignity, equal opportunities, non-discrimination and to his freedom of movement. We are going to file a complaint in the consumer court and ensure that Rajan gets justice."
He added that this was not an isolated incident but one of several such similar incidents of marginalisation faced by the disabled. "Most of the mushrooming private airlines seem to have no disability policy in place and there have been several such complaints. They seem to associate wheelchairs with illness, and so, wheelchair users have the toughest time," he said.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2007-06-19/india/27965622_1_airline-staff-jet-airways-air-sahara
Is autism a threat at airport?
For a country with an estimated 1.7 million autistic people, we are probably the most insensitive bunch of people. On Thursday, eleven-year-old Ahed was denied entry into the airport. Reason: he is autistic.
Ahed and his parents, Tamil actor Prithviraj and his wife Beena, were stoppedat the security gate of the Bangalore airport. CISF inspector Bhavesh Kumar told them that Ahed could not board the Air Deccan flight to Chennai because he looked different.
Furious at this insinuation, Prithviraj asked the officer to explain the rules under which he was stopping his son. "The officer merely replied that there are rules, but could not quote any. He kept saying my son could be a threat to other passengers," Prithviraj told the Hindustan Times.
"I started filming the argument and he kept blocking the camera lens. We had to argue for 30 minutes before the officer relented," Prithivraj said.
While his parents fought back vehemently, little Ahed kissed his mother repeatedly. Beena interpreted it as his way of saying, "It is all right. Don't worry."
This is not the first time Prithviraj has had to deal with such insensitive remarks about his son. An official at the Delhi airport once asked Prithviraj if his son was mad and the actor shot back: "You seem to be mad."
"We have never encountered such problems in Europe or other Asian countries," recalled Ahed's mother Bheena who runs a school for autistic children.
So has Prithviraj ever tried shoving a medical certificate at such ignorant officials? The actor said he once tried to get an autism certificate for his son from a medical authority in Delhi. "But autism has not been classified as a disability under the Disability Act. The authorities asked me if I could accept a certificate that labeled him mentally retarded," Prithviraj said.
The CISF, however, defended its official. And while doing so, its spokesman only betrayed his level of ignorance. He said the CISF officer was only following rules since international civil aviation rules do not permit a “mentally retarded person abroad an aircraft”.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/NM17/Is-autism-a-threat-at-airport/Article1-157627.aspx
At airports, autism too is a threat!
Chennai: In an incident that reflects on the utter insensitivity of security agencies manning India's airports, security staff in Bangalore Airport recently tried to stop an autistic child from boarding a plane, branding him a threat to other passengers.
This is a story sent to CNN-IBN by Tamil film actor Prithvi Raj, whose son was at the receiving end of this misdemeanour of airport security.
Says Prithvi Raj, who turned Citizen Journalist for CNN-IBN, "Our struggle is to integrate my son into the main stream society. We don't want special privilleges, but please do not treat him miserably."
The reason Prithvi Raj is angry is because he and his wife were told by the airport security in Bangalore that their autistic son Ahed, 'cannot board the flight to Chennai'.
When they asked why, this is how the security staff reacted:
Prithvi Raj: "Why can my son not board the flight?"
Security Officer: "You cannot shoot here with your camera."
Prithvi Raj: "Why can my son not go? Tell me why?"
Security Officer: "Because he's mentally Ill. That's why."
Prithvi Raj caught it all on camera.
"When my wife asked them they said, 'Aapka beta flight mein jayega aur baki passenger ko danger karega' (your son will be a danger to other passengers on the flight). Please, I understand we don't permit a toothpaste on a flight, but for God's sake, don't treat an 11-year-old like a terrorist," says Prithvi Raj.
The name of the officer who told this to Prithvi Raj is Bhavesh Kumar and Prithvi Raj had to argue with him for over half an hour before he could finally get Ahed on board their flight to Chennai.
The couple have had to endure such behaviour at other airports in the past, but it was as never this severe. They finally decided that enough was enough.
'It's happened to me in Delhi a couple of times and in other places. They ask me, 'Aapka beta pagal hai? (Is your son mad?), and I ask them 'Aap pagal hai? (Are you mad?). Is this the way you ask someone. And then they keep gesturing to each other, saying that my son is mad," says Prithvi Raj.
Says his wife Beena, "Ahed gets vibes when we are upset about something and after all that, he kept kissing me on my cheek as if to tell me, 'Mama it's okay'."
The question is here, how can people not be nice to a child like Ahed? The parents don't want venegance, they don't want suspensions or dismissals. All they are asking for is a concentrated effort to sensitise the society about the beauty of a differently-abled child.
AUTISM TRAITS
Difficulty in expressing needs, using gestures or pointing instead of words.
Repeating words or phrases in place of normal, responsive language.
Laughing or crying for no apparent reason or showing distress for reasons not apparent to others.
Preference to being alone.
Little or no eye contact.
Unresponsive to normal teaching methods.
Obsessive attachment to objects.
Apparent over-sensitivity or under-sensitivity to pain.
No real fears of danger.
Noticeable physical over-activity or extreme under-activity.
Non-responsive to verbal cues, acting as if deaf, although hearing tests in normal range.
WHAT IS AUTISM
Autism is a bit of a difficult disability to detect as it is a hidden disability of sorts.
Autistic children have a fascination with language, but they may be unresponsive towards normal teaching methods.
It is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects the normal functioning of the brain. It leads to difficulties in verbal and non-verbal communication and social interactions.
(With inputs from Vibha Sachdev in New Delhi)
http://ibnlive.in.com/news/at-airports-autism-too-is-a-threat/23197-3.html
Airlines discrimination sparks protest
The Telegraph - Calcutta : Guwahati
June 24: The project co-ordinator of Regional Disabilty Law Unit, Northeast, an organisation dealing with rights of the disabled, Arman Ali, today moved the Gauhati High Court against what he calls a “deliberate and sustained policy of discrimination against disabled persons” by the state-owned Indian Airlines.
Arman himself is afflicted with locomotor disability. “Ali is not only speaking for himself but for his entire community,” said Siddharth Sankar Dey, Arman’s counsel.
The court of Justice A. Roy has fixed the matter for admission on July18.
Arman had booked a ticket with the Indian Airlines for travelling to Mumbai on a Guwahati-Calcutta-Mumbai flight on January 15 last year. Ali was scheduled to attend an international seminar on disability at Mumbai.
Indian Airlines issues what it calls M category tickets at concessional rates to visually-impaired persons and persons with locomotor disability of 80 per cent and above. “Though Ali had booked the ticket three weeks in advance, he was placed on the waiting list. But on the day of the journey, Ali found that his seat was not confirmed,” Dey said. He feels that the act was deliberate. “Passengers who had booked their tickets much later were given confirmation,” Dey said. “Ali was repeatedly told by the airlines that “everything will be arranged”. But no arrangements were made. Left with no choice, Ali had to purchase a ticket on a private airline to reach Mumbai.”
Dey said that it has become a standard practice for the airlines to place people like Ali on the waiting list.
“Regardless of when they may have booked the ticket, their tickets are not confirmed until the time of departure so as to accommodate other passengers who pay the full fare.”
Dey said as per the Persons with Disabilities Act, 1995 and a 1999 Supreme Court ruling, state-owned Indian Airlines is under legal obligation to pursue disabled-friendly policies. “That’s why persons with locomotor disabilities are provided concessional tickets under the M category. But unfortunately, in reality, Indian Airlines follows a blatant policy of discrimination.”
Ali is actively involved in creating awareness about disability-related laws and providing legal aid to disabled people.
The Regional Disability Law Unit works in collaboration with Shishu Sarothi, a local NGO and the National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled People, New Delhi.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050625/asp/guwahati/story_4911678.asp
