A woman passenger of IndiGo airlines was injured after she fell from a wheelchair while being ferried by its staffer at the Lucknow airport, triggering a spat with the AAI and terming the reasons given by the airline as “incorrect”.
‘Crack in floor’
Two days after the incident, the airline on Monday claimed that the mishap happened due to a crack in the floor at the airport, drawing retort from the Airports Authority of India (AAI) which said that the incident happened because of “gross negligence of IndiGo staff”.
The latest incident comes days after IndiGo came under fire and apologised following the surfacing of a video of a passenger being manhandled at the Delhi airport.
‘Dimly lit lane’
In a statement shared with PTI, an IndiGo spokesperson apologised for the mishap involving the passenger, Urvashi Parikh Viren.
“Our IndiGo representative was pushing her wheelchair towards the arrival hall. As he was guiding her wheelchair through a vehicular lane, which was dimly lit at that time of the night, her wheelchair got stuck in a deep crack on the tarmac and lost balance and she fell off her wheelchair,” the spokesperson said.
According to the airline, the passenger was “injured” and was immediately rushed to the doctor of the AAI and was administered first aid.
AAI denies
In a late evening statement, an AAI spokesperson said it would like to put on record that “the reasons given by IndiGo of the wheelchair getting stuck in a crack on the road and claims of dim light are not correct as there is no crack on the tarmac and the area (baggage makeup area, near the airside conveyor belt) has sufficient illumination”.
Earlier in the day, AAI -- the Lucknow airport operator -- in a statement said that as per investigation, the incident happened due to “gross negligence of IndiGo staff as he chose the wrong path on the tarmac and mishandled the passenger”.
