Kolkata-bound ISI prof stranded in B’luru airport over wheelchair row – Times of India

Kolkata: A wheelchair-bound professor from Indian Statistical Institute in Bengaluru, who was booked on Air India flight AI 748 to Kolkata early on Monday, was denied boarding by the aircraft captain because he felt the wheelchair was a threat to the flight. This, after the Supreme Court passed a landmark order three months ago, calling on airlines to ask their staff to be more sensitive towards people with disabilities,
Prof Kaushik Kumar Majumdar, who has been travelling by the airline since 2009, said he was asked multiple questions about the battery-powered wheelchair at the check-in counter and again at the aircraft boarding gate before being curtly informed that he could travel by the plane but his wheelchair would not be allowed inside. Majumdar was coming to Kolkata to attend meetings at the institute headquarters here. “They asked me to disconnect my wheelchair’s battery. I tried to explain that it wasn’t possible but they would not listen. Finally, they said I could travel but would have to leave the wheelchair behind. That was no choice at all as the wheelchair is a part of me,” he said.
AI, however, claimed Majumdar was boarded first, according to the protocol of boarding passengers on wheelchair first, but when he was asked to dismantle the batteries of his wheelchair, conforming to IATA dangerous goods regulations (DGR), the industry standard for shipping dangerous goods by air, he could not remove the them. “Our engineering and operations team had extended support to accommodate the wheelchair by dismantling the batteries and referred to relevant manuals to accommodate safe carriage of the batteries as well as the wheelchair so as not to compromise on any safety mandate. But the passenger refused to travel without it. As there was no other alternative, the passenger had to be disembarked to adhere to safety requirements,” the airline said, an identical incident involving the same passenger had taken place at Bengaluru airport in 2017. Even at that time, the rules prohibiting his battery-powered wheelchair from being taken inside the aircraft were explained to him, an official said.
Majumdar, however, refuted the claim that he had wanted the wheelchair to be carried in the cabin. He pointed out the wheelchair had been stowed in the cargo hold on previous occasions when he had flown with the airline, including on a trip from Bangalore to Kolkata in October 2021 and on return journey the next month, without any trouble.
“I have been using a battery-powered wheelchair for years and travelling by the same airline. Before the recent privatization, we were mandatorily required to use this airline. AI has an ambulift service that helps people with disabilities board and alight from the aircraft,” the professor said.
Majumdar was travelling to Kolkata to attend the teachers’ meeting on Thursday in ISI Kolkata and the finance committee meeting the next day. He had an appointment with a doctor. He also wanted to get a new flat in Rajarhat registered to avail of the stamp duty rebate the state offered.