Airlines can no longer deny boarding to any person with disability

A SPECIALLY ABLED CHILD WAS NOT ALLOWED TO BOARD AN INDIGO FLIGHT ON MAY 7, CITING ‘UNRULY’ BEHAVIOUR

NEW DELHI: Weeks after a specially abled child was not allowed to board an Indigo flight, and days after aviation watchdog imposed a ₹5 lakh fine for the airline’s deficient handling of the passenger, the regulator issued new orders making it illegal for airlines to deny boarding to any person with a disability.

The move, a senior Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) official said, is to ensure that people with special needs are not misconstrued by airlines as behaving in an “unruly” manner — a classification that allows them to offload passengers who could be deemed as disrupting the flight’s service according to the civil aviation requirement (CAR) rules issued in 2017.

The DGCA notification amends CAR’S section 3, series M, part I, which now states: “Airline shall not refuse carriage of any person on the basis of disability. However, in case, an airline perceives that the health of such a passenger may deteriorate in-flight, the said passenger will have to be examined by a doctor- who shall categorically state the medical condition and whether the passenger is fit to fly or not. After obtaining the medical opinion, the Airline shall take the appropriate call.”

During the May 7 incident, Indigo claimed that the child was “visibly in panic” and was therefore denied permission to board the Ranchi-hyderabad flight. “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,” Indigo said at the time, adding that its ground staff waited for the child to calm down till the last minute.

However, while investigating the incident — which sparked outrage on social media, leading to an immediate intervention by civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia — DGCA noted that more compassionate handling by airline could have calmed the child, and that the ground staff’s handling only ended up exacerbating the situation.

“The aim [of the new order] is to set clear rules and that stakeholders identify and term a passenger unruly, after strict analysis of his/ her behaviour,” the DGCA official cited above said, asking not to be named.

The CAR normally defines unruly behaviour as: “Acting in disruptive manner by using threatening, abusive or insulting words towards a crew member or other passengers; physically behaving in a threatening, abusive, insulting or disorderly manner towards a member of the crew or other passengers and/ or intentionally interfering with the performance of a crew member”.

Experts described the move as a welcome step. “Specially abled people deserve special treatment and people need to be sensitised about them...,” said advocate Shirish Deshpande, chairman of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat, Asia’s largest consumer body.