Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu informed the Rajya Sabha Monday that his Ministry was looking into a complaint against Air India for not providing a pre-booked wheelchair to an 82-year-old woman passenger. A show cause notice will be issued to the airline over the incident that took place at the Delhi airport on March 4, he said.

The Minister said aviation regulator DGCA (Directorate General of Civil Aviation) has spoken to the passenger’s family and was now looking at the CCTV footage to ascertain what happened.

Describing it as a “very unfortunate incident”, he said, “There are always two different versions — one is from the family and from the airlines… We are issuing a show cause notice to the airlines. We will be taking action as per the show cause notice, whatever we get (from the footage).”

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After a complaint about non-availability of a pre-booked wheelchair that resulted in the fall of an elderly woman passenger at the Delhi airport, Air India had said wheelchair or assistance was not denied to the passenger at any point in time and first-aid was given immediately.

In a post on X on March 7, the passenger’s granddaughter alleged that she was treated poorly by the airline and claimed that she was not allocated a wheelchair for almost an hour. Issuing a statement a day later, Air India said the family had requested a wheelchair less than 90 minutes before the departure time.

Divya A reports on travel, tourism, culture and social issues – not necessarily in that order – for The Indian Express. She’s been a journalist for over a decade now, working with Khaleej Times and The Times of India, before settling down at Express. Besides writing/ editing news reports, she indulges her pen to write short stories. As Sanskriti Prabha Dutt Fellow for Excellence in Journalism, she is researching on the lives of the children of sex workers in India. … Read More

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