IndiGo staff at KIA snatch wheelchair from passenger flying with GoFirst

The family which was flying to attend a funeral in Kolkata was distraught by the conduct of IndiGo's staff

In an episode that can be dubbed insensitive,a 57-year-old specially abled passenger was made to give up his wheelchair at the Kempegowda International Airport in the early hours of Wednesday by ground staffers of IndiGo airlines because he was a passenger of GoFirst, The Times of India reported.

Gopal Dey, the differently abled man, was forcibly moved by the staffers saying that he was not allowed to use IndiGo’s equipment because he had booked tickets with another carrier.

Dey’s wife and son, who were travelling with him, had to hold him up and walk past the security; the delay resulted in one of them missing the flight. The family was flying to Kolkata to attend a funeral and distraught by the conduct of IndiGo’s staff.

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“We got to know late Tuesday night that my grandfather passed away in Kolkata, and I booked the first flight out of Bengaluru. I missed booking the wheelchair with GoFirst for my father,” Rajiv Dey, a Sahakarnagar resident, told the publication.

However, once at the airport, Rajiv was relieved to find a wheelchair outside the airport, but didn’t realise it belonged to IndiGo. The moment the family members entered the airport, IndiGo staffers allegedly forced Gopal to get out of wheelchair.

According to Rajiv, three IndiGo staffers moved his dad by force stating that they can’t use the equipment as they have not booked the tickets with IndiGo.

“No amount of pleading, shouting and offering a fee helped,” Rajiv added.

He had to go through the pre-departure security check twice—once with his father and then again for himself—making him get to the boarding gate two minutes late. GoFirst refused to allow him to board, despite him trying to explain the situation, and Rajiv missed his flight, and subsequently his grandfather’s funeral.

Sources within IndiGo staffers confirmed the episode, the TOI report said. According to the staffers, wheelchairs are meant for passengers who had pre-booked it with their airline and lack of adequate number of wheelchairs forced the staffers to seize it from rival carriers.