Tuesday, March 19, 2019

Patient stranded at JKIA after being ejected from plane to India

A patient scheduled to travel to India for specialised treatment has been left stranded at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) after she was ejected from the plane.
Wangari Ndumia, 25, was whisked out of a flight together with her sister after differences emerged on her fitness to fly.
While her sister, Ann Ndumia insisted that she was in a stable condition to board the plane that was making a stop in Abu Dhabi before connecting to Delhi, India, the officials of the airline claimed she was not fit.
This is despite the two having boarded the plane, already seated and was just waiting for the flight attendants to allocate her sister a favorable seat with enough leg room.
However, as soon as all the passengers had boarded, a call was made and what followed was the security officers directing them to leave the plane.
Ann said this was the second time they were being denied a chance to travel. The first time was on Tuesday where the airline also did not allow them to check in.
“And they (airline) refused to refund us the cash we paid a total of Sh116,870,” said Ann, almost breaking down.
According to an email seen by The Standard addressed to a local booking agent, Prudential Travels the airline laid blame on the agent.
“For all medical reasons travel you ought not to issue tickets before medical clearance with a fit to fly remark,” read the email in part from the airline.
It added: “Kindly note your ticket was within 24 hours we cannot cancel, only airport taxes can be reversed and credit note issued under the same passenger names. No cash fund is given on Air Arabia. You may cancel the inbound flight.”
After this mail, Ann said she was forced to go back to the same agent to try a secure another flight, which she said, she was instructed to add Sh50,000 more. She only had Sh25,000 and so  reached an agreement that she will pay the rest once she is back from India.
This is when the agent booked another flight with a different airline that was scheduled to depart on Sunday 2:15pm via Abu Dhabi before connecting to Delhi.
This time round, the agent had all the papers right including a medical certificate signed by Dr Diane Mclvor of Etihad.
On the flight ticket too it was indicated that she was a medical case described as ‘wheelchair all the way seat-confirmed.’
But as soon as the plane was already boarded, Ann and her ailing sister, whose right leg is being held together with screws due to massive loss of bones, were instructed to leave the flight.
18/03/19  Graham Kajilwa/Standard
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