Bhubaneswar/New Delhi: The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) chief has sought a report from IndiGo on the boarding row at the Ranchi Airport wherein the airline debarred a child with special needs and his family citing inconvenience to the other passengers on Saturday.
“The DGCA is probing this incident and it will take appropriate action,” the officials aware of this development said.
Explaining the situation, the IndiGo airlines said that the child was in a ‘state of panic’ and they could not fly him and his parents until he calmed down. Reports also suggest that IndiGo’s ground staff implied that the child with special needs was ‘unfit to fly’ and made inappropriate comparisons to the child as similar to the drunk passengers unfit to travel.
“The airline made the family comfortable by providing them with a hotel stay, the family flew on Sunday morning to their destination. IndiGo prides itself on being an inclusive organisation, be it for employees or customers; and over 75K specially-abled passengers fly with IndiGo every month,” IndiGo said in a statement.
The incident took place on May 7 at the Ranchi’s Birsa Munda Airport and this came into light after a video clip of the arguments between the family and airline staff went viral and later it came to the notice of the Civil Aviation Ministry.
Subsequently, Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia ordered a probe into the matter.
Stating that ‘there is zero tolerance towards such behaviour’, Scindia said in a Twitter message on Monday, “No human being should have to go through this! Investigating the matter by myself, post which appropriate action will be taken.”
(With inputs from IANS)
