Taking cognizance of the incident where a specially-abled child was denied boarding a flight from Ranchi to Hyderabad by budget carrier IndiGo on Saturday on the ground that he was “uncontrollable and aggressive”, Union Civil Aviation Minister, Jyotiraditya Scindia on Monday assured citizens of appropriate action post investigation.
Scindia, while responding to a tweet by Abhinandan Mishra, a journalist with The Sunday Guardian and The Daily Guardian, in which he had highlighted the incident, said, “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.”
The Indian aviation watchdog DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) and child rights protection body, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) have also taken cognizance of the incident. DGCA has constituted a 3-member team in connection with a physically challenged boy denied boarding by IndiGo at Ranchi airport. DGCA has decided to conduct a fact-finding probe. The team will also go to Ranchi and Hyderabad for the investigations.
Following the uproar, IndiGo released a statement on Sunday evening claiming that the specially-abled child was not allowed to board the flight with his
family “in view of the safety of passengers” as he was in a “state of panic”, a claim that goes contrary to the eyewitness accounts and videos of the said incident.
The father of the 12-year-old boy, who is based in Hyderabad, while speaking to The Daily Guardian, said that he and his family members were humiliated by the IndiGo staff. “There is no truth in Indigo’s claims that the child was aggressive. My son had colic pain due to which he was crying, which he stopped after being given medicine. The IndiGo staff, however, refused to let us board the flight despite repeated requests from other passengers including medical experts who were telling them that the child was fit to fly. The staff threatened to stop those passengers who were supporting us. I had gone to Bokaro to see my 80-year-old ailing mother and was coming back. My son loves travelling and has done at least five air travel trips in the last 50 days. He has never been ‘uncontrollable’ and ‘aggressive’ as IndiGo has claimed. We were forced to go through a feeling of humiliation and bullying in the hands of the airline staff. If my child was not in a condition to travel, we would not have come to the airport,” he said.
IndiGo’s CEO Ronojoy “Rono” Dutta later released another statement on Monday afternoon stating that they have reviewed the incident and that their staff made the best possible decision under “difficult circumstances” by not allowing the “panicked” teenager from boarding the flight while using the word “commotion” to describe him.
“We had a very unfortunate incident at Ranchi airport on May 07, 2022, when a specially-abled teenager and his parents could not board their scheduled flight to Hyderabad,” the IndiGo statement reads. “All of us at IndiGo are truly distressed by this particular incident. Since April 2022 we have carried over 75k specially-abled passengers aboard our airline and our crew and airport staff are trained to serve such passengers sensitively,” the statement further reads. “Throughout the check-in and boarding process, our intent of course was to carry the family, however, at the boarding area, the teenager was visibly in panic. While providing courteous and compassionate service to our customers is of paramount importance to us, the airport staff, in line with the safety guidelines, were forced to make a difficult decision as to whether this commotion would carry forward aboard the aircraft. Having reviewed all aspects of this incident, we as an organization are of the view that we made the best possible decision under difficult circumstances,” it said.
IndiGo also offered as a “token of appreciation’ to the parents’ lifelong dedication for caring for the physically challenged persons” an electric wheelchair. The father of the boy, while speaking to The Daily Guardian, turned down the offer of the wheelchair. The father has filed a written complaint with the government departments concerned, highlighting the ordeal that they faced in Ranchi.