Bengaluru: Diabled artist misses flight as airline refuses to fly her wheelchair

“National award winning artist and ALIMCO staffer Savita Dwivedi (31) misses flight at Bengaluru Airport as @allianceair allegedly refused to fly her motorised wheelchair citing security reasons. She is a frequent flyer on other domestic carriers and hadn’t faced a similar hurdle” Petlee Peter wrote on Twitter.

Read about the incident here

Savita Dwivedi was to board an Alliance Air flight from Bengaluru airport on Saturday. She reaced the airport to board 9am flight 9I505 for Kochi, when her motorised wheelchair was denied permission to go on board.

Dwivedi is a 31 year old artist who was born in Allahabad and paints with her mouth.

Savita lost her hands and a leg in the year 1994, when she was four years ols,  after she accidentally cam in contact with a high-power electric line. An exemplary painter, she has been lauded for winning many national and international accolades for her work.

She reached the Kempegowda airport to board a flight for Kochi, whent he Alliance Air ground staff refused to take her battery operated wheelchair. 

The disabled painter had to book another flight with a different airlines company, spending ₹14,000 who agreed to carry her wheelchair in their cargo belly. The second IndoGo flight was schedduled three hours after her previous Alliance Air flight. 

“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 to a media company. 

The 31 year old artist also works for Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India in Kanpur. Her struggles and achievements have made it to class 6 NCERT Hindi textbook.

“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, added.

The artist had come to Bengaluru from Kanpur on an IndiGo airlines flight with her motorised wheelchair and was headed to Kochi with a friend.

At Bengaluru she missed her flight when the ground staff of Alliance Air refused to take her motorised wheel chair. They insisted that she can fly to Kochi without her wheelchair. This ultimately led to her missing the flight. 

The artist further said, “I had to spend an extra ₹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 the media house.

Alliance Air said they will examine the matter involving the artist.

In May this year, an adolscent kid was denied permission to board an IndiGo flight from Ranchi, tehreby drawing severe criticism and backlash. The DGCA also fined the airline company ₹5 lakh for ‘inappropritate handling’ of the situation. 

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