One thought that a person in a wheelchair is always looked upon with respect and be taken care of, on humanitarian grounds. But, the crew members on a SpiceJet flight did not feel the need to do so as para-tennis player Madhu Bagri experienced a tough ordeal on Monday morning.
Bagri struggled to move in her wheelchair and thus asked the crew members to help her out. She wanted to sit in the first row of the flight as the wheelchair could not move in that narrow aisle. But the reply was what shocked her as Madhu was 'asked to crawl to her seat'.
"As the aisle was not wide enough for the movement of the wheelchair, I requested the crew to accommodate me in the first row, but they refused saying that they cannot accommodate a disabled person in the first row," Hindustan Times quoted Madhu as saying.
"Two crew persons lifted me along with the wheelchair and in the process, my head banged on the roof. This upset me and eventually, this led to an argument and offloading. I was even asked to crawl to my seat in the third row. This is not the way to treat a disabled person."
Even after being offloaded, it was eventually the CISF personnel at the airport that helped her with the luggage, and Madhu was disappointed with the treatment meted out to her.
The airline spokesman made an official statement regarding the incident, stating that the front row of the Q400 Bombardier aircraft are emergency exits and persons with disability cannot sit there as per rules.
One understands that the SpiceJet crew might have been following the protocol, but one needs to be very careful when dealing with such sensitive cases, especially when the person is in a wheelchair.
The crew could have handled the situation much better and averted bagging headlines for the wrong reasons.
