Air India offloads unconscious expat

Dammam: Air India, India’s state-run airlines, offloaded an unconscious passenger even after he was issued a boarding pass and completed all his immigration procedures.
Mohammed Shaffe, 39, from Thanoor in Malappuram district of Kerala, India, has spent the last one and one half months in King Fahd Military Hospital, after being involved in an accident in the Abqaiq area.
According to Abdullah Ali, organizer of the India Fraternity Forum, Air India offloaded the passenger “due to lack of facility to carry a sick passenger”.
The welfare wing members of the forum, Ali said, made all the arrangements including the paperwork, and got Air India’s approval to carry Shaffe and received a seat confirmation for him along with a nurse and an assistant.
“Air India gave us seat confirmation on Wednesday’s flight AI 918. We brought Shaffe from hospital in an ambulance. But the inflight doctor did not allow Shaffe to travel since he was unconscious and there were no facilities inside the plane. “This is very cruel for the patient and his relatives who were waiting at the airport back home with an ambulance,” Ali said.
Ali said the accompanying nurse and travel assistant had to travel to India without Shaffe since their immigration formalities had been completed.
Social workers in Dammam are planning to file a complaint against Air India with the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Indian and Saudi aviation ministries, Indian Foreign Minister and Indian Minister for Expatriates’ Affairs.
06/08/10 Shabna Aziz/Saudi Gazette

To Read the News in full at Source, Click the Headline

Categories: Air India - International Aug 2010, airports aug 2010, Foreign Aug 2010, NACIL Aug 2010