Archaic laws stop disabled from flying

Chennai: Flying has become a painful experience for disabled people and senior citizens, aggrevated by the lack of infrastructure and an abundance of archaic laws.
While several airports including the Chennai airport don't have enough aerobridges, ambulifts and wheel chairs to shift such people into the aircraft and out of it, the Aircraft Rules, 1937 bans people with epilepsy or psychological disorders from flying. It was under this rule that Jeeja Ghosh, 42, was forced out of the SpiceJet flight recently.
Passengers complain that airlines hide under these rules to justify preventing some elderly patients to travel. In the case of Ghosh, a cerebral palsy patient, the airlines didn't understand that her disorder is not listed under the rules.
The director general of civil aviation's civil aviation requirements Section 3 defines a disabled person as whose mobility when using transport is reduced due to any physical disability, intellectual disability or impairment, or any other cause of disability, or age. It suggests that airlines should provide all assistance to such passengers without additional charge. But civil aviation in India is largely governed by Aircraft Rules 1937.
28/02/12 V Ayyappan/Times of India

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Feb 2012