The aviation safety regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), has imposed a penalty of ₹30 lakh on Air India for the death of an 80-year-old passenger from a cardiac arrest after a delay in providing him a wheelchair at the Mumbai airport earlier this month, but disability rights activists say a mere rap on the knuckles doesn’t change much.
On February 12, the octogenarian, Babu Patel, and his wife arrived on Air India’s New York to Mumbai flight. They had both requested a wheelchair. But when only one wheelchair was available for the couple, Mr. Patel was requested to wait for another one. But he decided to walk along with his wife, who used the wheelchair. A little later, he collapsed at the airport and was rushed to Nanavati Hospital where the doctors declared him dead.
The DGCA said in a press statement on Thursday that the airline failed to conform to its rules on carriage of persons with disability. Air India also didn’t inform the regulator “about any action taken by the airline against the erring employee(s) and the airline also failed to submit any corrective actions taken to prevent the recurrence of such incidents.”
Wheelchair inventory
Though the wheelchair inventory has to be maintained by airports, and the DGCA’s own rules state that the basic responsibility for providing wheelchairs in the terminal building is that of the airport operator, the airlines may provide extra wheelchairs for the convenience of their passengers in the terminal building. No action has been taken by the DGCA against the airport operator.
At the time of the tragic incident, there was a demand for 200 wheelchairs from various airlines at the airport and the Air India’s flight from New York alone had a request for 33 wheelchairs.
While the airline industry cites misuse of wheelchairs, including from those passengers who book it for international travel to avail free escort service to overcome language problems at foreign airports as well as for senior citizens who may or may not have mobility issues, activists say there is a need for airlines to develop protocols to deal with the diverse needs of its passengers.
Disability rights activist, Vaishnavi Jayakumar of Disability Rights Alliance explains that though airlines in India collect information from medically ill passengers seeking wheelchair assistance to define whether or not they can ascend and descend stairs, or whether they are completely immobile (in Special Service Request Codes), the same information should also be collected from those who suffer from reduced mobility but don’t have an illness. This information should also be used to provide a customised solution right through the airport from the entrance to the boarding gate and vice versa. For example, a senior citizen who is in a position to walk up to the airport passenger building from the aircraft could be provided a buggy instead of a wheelchair thereby freeing up wheelchairs for other users.
She also points out that airports fail to ensure ambulift when there are no aerobridges so that wheelchair-passengers don’t have to be carried awkwardly up a step ladder. This is despite the DGCA’s rules making them mandatory, or requiring provision of a ramp when ambulifts and aerobridges can’t be ensured.
It is also important to make the wheelchair booking process a simple one-step exercise, instead of passengers being required to make a phone call 48 hours before their travel and making a special request. This too is laid down under the rules.
There is also a demand for regular internal audits to be conducted over the oversight of the DGCA to ensure assistive devices are available as per the recommendation of the Ashok Kumar Committee on carriage of persons with disabilities in October 2012.
