On May 7th, at the Ranchi airport, a wheelchair bound teenager was denied boarding by the duty manager.
The rest of the passengers tried to tell the duty manager that what he was doing was not legally permissible. However, the duty manager stuck to his guns.
This story was carried by Manisha Gupta, who was also a passenger on that flight. It was then shared by many people across the country and within a few hours, many people, including the Civil Aviation Minister, Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia, also tweeted about it.
There is zero tolerance towards such behaviour. No human being should have to go through this! Investigating the matter by myself, post which appropriate action will be taken. https://t.co/GJkeQcQ9iW
— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) May 9, 2022
The Enquiry Committee
A 3-member enquiry committee was formed on May 10th.
Keeping the sensitive nature of the incident in mind, we have decided to conduct a fact-finding enquiry by a 3-member team under the @DGCAIndia . They will visit Ranchi & Hyderabad (place of stay of the family), and collect appropriate evidence within one week from today. https://t.co/Jnpv5efZVy
— Jyotiraditya M. Scindia (@JM_Scindia) May 10, 2022
A show cause notice was issued to Indigo. They had to respond by May 26th.
The Fine
On May 28th, a fine of Rs. 5 lakhs was imposed on Indigo Airlines for their handling of the situation.
Indigo changes Wheelchair rules on its website
Now, when you try to book a wheelchair on an Indigo flight, the following pops up:
Please pay attention to the third requirement – be able to go to an emergency exit on their own. Now, there are no wheelchairs on a flight. How does a wheelchair bound person make it to the exit?
Also, the level of detail required while asking for a wheelchair is very high. These are personal medical details of the traveller which the airline should not be asking for. Let’s drill down and it becomes even more interesting:
If you choose others:
And while we are at it, assist is spelled incorrectly.
Wheelchair at other airline websites
On the same day, we tried to make a reservation and book wheelchair for other airlines. For consistency, we tried to book the exact same date of travel and the exact same sector on all airlines.
The following airlines did not ask for any further details while making a wheelchair request:
A. Alliance Air
B. Air India
C. Go Air
D. Vistara Airlines
E. Spice Jet – did not allow us to book a wheelchair during booking before the payment page. So, we don’t know if they offer the passenger a prebooked wheelchair facility. There was a special assistance icon on the home page when trying to book a ticket, but it led to an information page and did not give us a wheelchair.
