Probe ordered into IndiGo passenger offloading
NEW DELHI: Civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu on Tuesday ordered an enquiry into the IndiGo staff off-loading a passenger at Lucknow airport. Saurabh Rai, a doctor, has claimed that he was deboarded after complaining of mosquitoes onboard an IndiGo flight from Lucknow to Bengaluru. “I have ordered an enquiry into the incident of off-loading passenger Dr Saurabh Rai by IndiGo at Lucknow Airport,” Prabhu said in a tweet.
LUCKNOW: Manish Khemka, chairman and founder trustee at Global Taxpayers’ Trust, met UP civil aviation minister Nand Gopal Nandi on Tuesday to demand a high level inquiry into the alleged misbehaviour of Indigo airlines staff with a passenger.
The passenger Saurabh Rai, a doctor with Narayan Hrudayalaya in Bengaluru, was forcibly offloaded from the aircraft by Indigo staff on Monday morning after he complained about mosquitoes in the plane.
He had boarded the Lucknow Bengaluru flight (6E-541) at 6.35 am.
Nandi expressed anguish over the alleged misbehaviour by the airlines staff.
He assured the taxpayers’ body of proper investigation into the incident, saying he would write to authorities concerned to take action in this matter.
In his memorandum to the minister, Khemka highlighted the “poor record of Indigo with passengers.”
He said a doctor was allegedly forcibly offloaded from the plane by the airlines staff, which gets salary from the money paid by passengers.
Khemka added, “If the doctor asked the staff to get rid of mosquitoes, they should not have argued with him. He was raising a valid point even if his tone was high. The airlines staff must learn to respect passengers. But they offloaded him and didn’t even have the courtesy to return his ticket money. They treated a doctor like a terrorist.”
The doctor had to operate three patients in Bengaluru but the airlines staff never understood the gravity of the matter and played with the lives of these patients, added Khemka.