Differently-abled woman offloaded from SpiceJet flight

Kolkata A woman suffering from cerebral palsy was offloaded from a SpiceJet flight at the Kolkata airport on Sunday as the pilot reportedly found her unfit to fly on her own. An airline source said the pilot mistook the passenger for a mentally challenged patient.
The incident occurred soon after Jeeja Ghosh, 42, a teacher at Kolkata’s Indian Institute of Cerebral Palsy, boarded the flight. Ghosh was on her way to Goa to attend a conference where she was to deliver a lecture on mainstreaming the differently-abled.
Ghosh said she reached the airport at 7 am, checked in and was escorted to the flight by an assistant. She was seated in the plane when a flight assistant reportedly asked for her boarding pass and then told her to leave her seat and accompany them. Ghosh was made to deboard the flight, put in a car and taken back to the airport.
According to Ghosh, she was taken to the airport office, where she learnt that it was the pilot, Utprabh Tiwari, who wanted her offloaded. The assistant manager and other personnel reportedly said they were helpless and had failed to convince the pilot.
Ghosh said the airline staff refused to give her a written statement stating the reason for de-boarding her.
While the airline later apologised and offered to fly her to Goa the next day, Ghosh has filed a complaint with the authorities.
20/02/12 Express India

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Categories: airports Feb 2012, spicejet Feb 2012