Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia promised ‘appropriate action’ and said that he is himself investigating the case of a special needs child being mistreated by IndiGo staff. An IndiGo manager allegedly misbehaved with a child with special needs child at Ranchi airport on Saturday.
The incident made news after Abhinandan Mishra, an eyewitness, who was present at the time of the incident, narrated it on social media. According to his account, IndiGo airlines representative at Ranchi airport stopped the kid and his parents to board a flight for not displaying “normal” behaviour.
Reacting to this, Scindia 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.”
What happened?
The eyewitness detailed that the child had an uncomfortable car ride to the airport and was visibly stressed on arrival at the boarding gate. His parents, however, brought the situation under control with some food and love.
However, at the time of boarding, an IndiGo manager warned the family that the child would not be allowed to board the plane unless he acted ‘normally’. He reportedly announced that the specially-abled child is a flight risk and compared the condition (teenage assertiveness) to that of drunken passengers and deemed the child un-fit for travel.
The child is uncontrollable, he’s in a state of panic, the IndiGo manager kept shouting, Mishra’s post added. Moreover, some doctors, who were taking the same flight, assured them of support. But eventually, the IndiGo flight departed to Hyderabad, leaving the three behind.
How did IndiGo react?
After the incident went viral, the budget airline issued a statement saying the specially abled child could not have boarded the flight in ‘a state of panic’.
“The ground staff waited for him to calm down till the last minute, but to no avail. The airline made the family comfortable by providing them hotel stay and the family flew next morning to their destination. We regret the inconvenience caused to the passengers,” the statement read.
