Nightmare: AI loses wheelchair of paraplegic passenger, takes over 2 days to replace it

In a harrowing experience for a 32-year-old paraplegic passenger travelling on an Air India flight to Abu Dhabi, the airline not only lost her checked-in baggage, which contained her portable wheelchair and a toilet chair but also replaced the wheelchair only 55 hours later and that too with a broken seat, a Hindustan Times report said today. [caption id=“attachment_1676799” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  PTI[/caption] The ordeal for the passenger reportedly began at the Mumbai International Airport itself. First the airline made her wait for almost an hour for an aisle wheel chair. Secondly, she was unable to use the lavatory due to the absence of a cabin lavatory. Thirdly, she was given no assistance on de-boarding the plane and she was made to wait another 50 minutes for the airline to arrange a wheelchair. That too could not be brought to her seat and she ultimately had to be carried by the crew to the wheelchair, the HT report quoted the passenger as saying. What’s worse is that the airline took over two days to get her a wheelchair after having lost her luggage! Unable to bear the ordeal, the passenger named Bharti Gehani was forced to buy a used wheelchair for 600 UAE Dirham (Rs10,177). “Separated from my best friend for 55+ hours in a foreign country: I missed you My “Wheelchair”. Air India - you should be ashamed for such carelessness and insensitivity. You are a disgrace,” Gehani said on Facebook.