IndiGo said the family was provided hotel accommodation and they flew to their destination the next morning.
New Delhi:
Indigo Airlines on Saturday did not allow a specially-abled child to board the flight with her parents, the airline said in a statement today. The airline underlined that it is proud to be “inclusive”.
“In view of the safety of the passengers, a specially-abled child could not board the flight with his family on May 7 as he was in a state of panic. The ground staff waited till the last moment for him to calm down, but to no avail. did not happen,” the airlines said in a statement.
Manisha Gupta, a fellow passenger and witness to the scene, wrote about the incident in a detailed Facebook post.
The IndiGo manager, Ms Gupta, kept shouting and telling everyone that “the child is uncontrollable”.
“The only person who panics is you,” Ms Gupta said, referring to a fellow passenger’s retort to the airline manager.
The family said, the airline was provided hotel accommodation and they took off for their destination the next morning.
Ms Gupta said in her post that a group of doctors traveling on the same flight offered to provide full assistance to the child and his parents in case a health episode occurs mid-air.
Ms Gupta noted how other passengers rallied around the family.
MS Gupta accompanied the news articles, along with a Twitter post on the Supreme Court’s decision to stop his mobile phone saying how an airline can’t discriminate against disabled passengers.
Ms Gupta said, “In those 45 minutes of argument, anger, rage and quarrel, not once did the three (the family) lose their dignity or raise their voices or utter an irrational word.”
“We are sorry for the inconvenience caused to the passengers. IndiGo is proud to be an inclusive organization, be it employees or its customers,” the airline said.