Air India on wrong foot again: Wheelchair-bound passenger not allowed to board flight

Kaushik Majumder is a researcher at the Indian Statistical Institute. (Source: ANI)

Air India was in the midst of a controversy again after a differently abled passenger claimed he was not allowed to board a flight due to his battery-operated wheelchair, ANI reported on Tuesday.

Kaushik Majumder, a researcher at the Indian Statistical Institute, alleged that he was harassed by Air India staff and was not allowed to board his Bangalore to Kolkata flight on December 17.

On November 29, the debt-ridden airline was in the news after a traveller and an Air India employee slapped each other at Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport. The argument started after the passenger, whose husband is a senior bureaucrat in the Haryana government, apparently arrived late and was not allowed to board the flight.

Recounting the incident to The Hindu, Majumder said before entering the flight, the staff had asked him to shift to a non-electrical wheelchair. The researcher, who has 85 per cent orthopaedic disability, said he agreed to do so and disconnected the battery of his wheelchair but the staff then asked him to remove all wires too. “I did not agree to that as it is a complex mechanism. Neither I nor the ground staff at the destination airport would be able to fix it,” Majumdar said.

However, Air India refuted his charges. According to The Hindu, an airline spokesperson said the passenger was clearly told at the time of check-in that the battery-operated wheelchair would not be allowed on-board the flight.