GoAir prevents blind woman, her two kids from boarding flight

Mumbai: A 35-yr-old visually challenged woman, who was scheduled to fly from Mumbai to Ahmedabad by a GoAir flight on Monday morning, was stopped from boarding the aircraft by the airline staffers at the domestic terminal of Chhatrapati Shivaji Airport. The reason? The lady is visually challenged and was with her two sons aged nine and two years
The lady, Shabnam Mansuri, was in the city with her kids to meet her husband Dr Samir Mansuri, an ayurveda practitioner based in Oshiwara, Andheri (West).
“Seems humanity doesn’t exist,” said Shabnam, who runs a non-profit organisation, Blinds Dream, that works to empower visually challenged persons.
The Mansuris say that this is not the first time their were flying by GoAir. In fact, they had informed the airlines about Shabnam’s disability and that she was travelling with children. The three had even cleared the security checks
Her husband, Dr Mansuri, told Mumbai Mirror the tickets for his wife and children had been booked well in advance on September 2. “At the time of booking, we informed that the passenger is a blind lady travelling with two children,” said Dr Mansuri, adding that they had informed the booking agent to request for an escort citing disability.
However, a day prior to the flight, Dr Mansuri received a call from the agent, saying that the flight was being cancelled. “I sensed something amiss. I had a heated argument with the agent and said that we would anyway go to the airport and check if the flight was being cancelled,” he said.
08/09/11 Bapu Deedwania/Mumbai Mirror

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Categories: GoAir Sep 2011