The DGCA has served a show cause notice to Air India and issued an advisory to all airlines to ensure availability of adequate wheelchairs after an 80-year-old passenger collapsed at Mumbai airport and later passed away.
The octogenarian, Babu Patel, and his wife arrived on Air India’s New York to Mumbai flight on February 12. They had both requested a wheelchair. Only one wheelchair was available which Mrs. Patel used. Mr. Patel decided to walk along with his wife. A little later, he collapsed at the airport and was rushed to Nanavati Hospital where the doctor declared him dead.
The DGCA said in a press statement that Air India was served a showcause notice for violating the Civil Aviation Requirement (CAR) on carriage of persons with disability. The airline has to submit a reply to the DGCA within 7 days. The regulator has also issued an advisory to all airlines to ensure that sufficient wheelchairs are available for passengers who require assistance while embarking and disembarking from the aircraft.
Abuse of service
“Due to heavy demand for wheelchairs, we asked the passenger to wait till he was also provided with wheelchair assistance, but he opted to walk with his spouse. Air India is in constant touch with the family members of the bereaved, extending necessary assistance,” the airline said in a statement adding that it has a clearly laid down policy to offer wheelchair assistance to every passenger who requests it during reservation.
Airlines though complain about flagrant “misuse” of wheelchairs. When the New York-Mumbai flight landed on February 12, there were requests for 200 wheelchairs and 33 for that particular Air India flight, sources say.
Travellers are known to book free wheelchair assistance to avail the escort service for elderly family members or those who may not understand a foreign language, in order to help them negotiate long queues and travel within an airport.
Degree of immobility
However, Vaishnavi Jayakumar of Disability Rights Alliance stresses that wheelchair users can be both ambulant and non-ambulant and Indian airlines must comply with IATA’s Special Service Request (SSR) Codes which define the degree of immobility a passenger may suffer from: such as whether a wheelchair-passenger can walk from a cabin seat or descend or ascend stairs or is completely immobile. She explains that this data can enable front-line staff to provide targeted assistance such as a buggy once ambulant passengers deplane and enter the terminal building.
Rajiv Rajan, Executive Director at Ektha, an organisation of Persons with Disabilities said that the DGCA needs to evolve an implementation strategy for the CAR on carriage of persons with disabilities.
According to Para 4.1.7 of CAR, airlines are mandatorily required to provide assistance to persons with disability or reduced mobility and ensure their “seamless travel” between the aircraft and the terminal gate.
