BENGALURU: An award-winning physically challenged artist missed her flight at Bengaluru airport after Alliance Air allegedly refused to fly her battery-operated wheelchair citing safety reasons, reports Petlee Peter. She spent Rs 14,000 to book another flight from a different airline and took off three hours later with her wheelchair in the aircraft's cargo belly. Sarita Dwivedi, 31, said she's a frequent flyer who has had no issue with domestic airlines until now. Alliance Air said they will examine the matter involving the artist.
Artist misses flight as airline refuses to allow her motorised wheelchair
An award-winning physically challenged artist missed her flight at Bengaluru airport after ground staff of Alliance Air allegedly refused to fly her battery-operated wheelchair on the aircraft citing safety reasons. She was forced to book another flight from a different airline and took off three hours later with her wheelchair in the aircraft's cargo belly.
On Saturday morning, Sarita Dwivedi, a 31-year-old Allahabad-born artist who paints with her mouth, reached Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) terminal to check in at the Alliance Air counter. She was to board flight 9I 505 that was scheduled to take off to Kochi at 9am.
"I reached the counter at 8.02am. When I tried to check in, the ground staff first said I was late for boarding as I was a wheelchair-bound flyer and should have come earlier. When I showed them the time and said there is more than 55 minutes to take off, they suddenly said I can board, but my motorised wheelchair powered by a battery can't fly with me," said Dwivedi, who is also an employee at Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India in Kanpur.
On a personal trip, Dwivedi had flown in to Bengaluru from Kanpur on an IndiGo airlines flight on Wednesday with her motorised wheelchair and was headed to Kochi with a friend.
"I tried explaining to the Alliance Air staff that I'm a frequent flyer with different domestic airlines and have never had an issue regarding transportation of my wheelchair, which is always boarded in cargo after removing the battery lines and the seating area folded in," Dwivedi, who had booked Alliance Air for the first time, said.
With the airline's ground staff insisting that she can fly to Kochi, but without her wheelchair, the artist was forced to miss her flight. "I had to spend an extra Rs 14,000 and book myself on an IndiGo flight at 1pm on the same day. This time, I left for Kochi along with my wheelchair," Dwivedi told TOI on phone from Kerala.
Dwivedi lost her hands and a leg in 1994 after she accidentally came in contact with a high-power electric line. She was four then and has since been lauded as a braveheart for winning national and international accolades for her painting skills. Her struggles and achievements have made it to class 6 NCERT Hindi textbook.
Alliance Air said they will examine the matter involving the artist.
