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BENGALURU: An award-winning artist with a physical disability 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 on a different airline and took off three hours later, with her wheelchair in the aircraft’s cargo belly.
On Saturday, Sarita Dwivedi, a 31-year-old Allahabad-born artist who paints with her mouth, reached Kempegowda International Airport 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 and 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 mentioned that there is more than 55 minutes to take off, they suddenly said I can board, but my motorized wheelchair powered by a battery can’t fly with me,” Dwivedi, who is also an employee at Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) in Kanpur, said.
On a personal trip, Dwivedi had flown in to Bengaluru from Kanpur on an IndiGo airlines flight on Wednesday with her motorized wheelchair and was headed to Kochi with a friend. With the airline’s ground staff insisting that she can fly to Kochi, but without her wheelchair, the artist missed her flight. “I had to spend an extra Rs 14,000 and book myself on an IndiGo flight at 1pm on the same day,” 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 laudedfor winning many national and internal accolades for her painting skills. Her struggles and achievements have made it into Class 6 NCERT Hindi textbook.
Alliance Air said they will examine the matter involving the artist.
On Saturday, Sarita Dwivedi, a 31-year-old Allahabad-born artist who paints with her mouth, reached Kempegowda International Airport 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 and 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 mentioned that there is more than 55 minutes to take off, they suddenly said I can board, but my motorized wheelchair powered by a battery can’t fly with me,” Dwivedi, who is also an employee at Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) in Kanpur, said.
On a personal trip, Dwivedi had flown in to Bengaluru from Kanpur on an IndiGo airlines flight on Wednesday with her motorized wheelchair and was headed to Kochi with a friend. With the airline’s ground staff insisting that she can fly to Kochi, but without her wheelchair, the artist missed her flight. “I had to spend an extra Rs 14,000 and book myself on an IndiGo flight at 1pm on the same day,” 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 laudedfor winning many national and internal accolades for her painting skills. Her struggles and achievements have made it into Class 6 NCERT Hindi textbook.
Alliance Air said they will examine the matter involving the artist.
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