THE DIRECTORATE General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) will depute a three-member fact-finding team to probe Saturday’s incident at the Ranchi airport, where IndiGo staff allegedly denied boarding to a specially abled childa senior official of the aviation safety regulator told The Indian Express,
The official said the team “will visit Ranchi and Hyderabad”, where the child’s parents are based, to collect evidence as part of the probe. “We have received a report from the concerned airline. However, in view of the facts and circumstances described therein, we have decided to conduct a fact-finding enquiry, which shall be done by a three-member team from DGCA,” the official said.
“The team will collect appropriate evidence within one week from today. Further action will be based on the outcome of the probe,” the official said.
On Monday, a day after the incident came to light, Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiradtiya Scindia tweeted that he would personally probe the incident even as the national child rights panel asked Jharkhand Police to lodge a case against the airline.
Responding to criticism over the incident, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said the airline staff made the “best possible decision under difficult circumstances” but added that the company has expressed “sincere regrets” to the child’s family and offered to purchase an electric wheelchair for him.
Tagging a social media post on the incident, Scindia tweeted: “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.”
Sources told The Indian Express that Rajya Sabha MP and BJP national spokesperson Anil Baluni has written a letter to Scindia flagging that he was also involved in a similar incident with IndiGo. Baluni has sought the Minister’s intervention on the issue while urging for an explanation from the airline, the sources said.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) wrote a letter to Jharkhand Police, stating that it has received a complaint about the incident, and asked them to lodge an FIR “as there was prima facie violation of section 7 of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, which is cognisable in nature”.
Ranchi SSP Surendra Jha, to whom the letter was addressed, told The Indian Express that he was yet to receive a communication in this regard from the panel.
In a separate letter, NCPCR asked the DGCA to initiate a probe and suggested that action be taken against the airline’s manager at the Ranchi airport.
In both the letters, the panel sought an action-taken report within seven days.
“We are looking into (the incident) and shall take appropriate action,” DGCA chief Arun Kumar told The Indian Express.
In a statement issued on Monday, IndiGo CEO Dutta said: “Throughout the check-in and boarding process our intent of course was to carry the family, however, at the boarding area the teenager was visibly in panic.”
Dutta said: “While providing courteous and compassionate service to our customers is of paramount importance to us, the airport staff, in line with the safety guidelines, were forced to make a difficult decision as to whether this commotion would carry forward aboard the aircraft. Having reviewed all aspects of this incident, we as an organization are of the view that we made the best possible decision under difficult circumstances.”
Dutta said the company offered “sincere regrets” to the affected family for their experience, and “as a small token of our appreciation of their lifelong dedication would like to offer to purchase an electric wheelchair for their son”.
Speaking to The Indian Express on Sunday, Gupta, who had posted about the incident on Facebook, said: “The child had a breakdown. It seemed that he had gone on a spiral of stress and the mother had slapped him once. There was a bit of crying and the sound echoed. In the meantime, the mother said sorry to her child and started hugging him to calm him down. She also cried. At this point, a person from Indigo Customer Service came to them and said if the child continues in this manner, he won’t be allowed to board.”
Gupta said: “The child was fed, given medicines and taken care of by their parents, and he was not showing any ‘risky behaviour’. However, when boarding began, he was not allowed to board.” ,(With ENS in New Delhi & Ranchi)
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