Bitten by mosquitoes, manhandled by Indigo crew, Bengaluru doctor 'forcibly' offloaded at Lucknow airport

A Bengaluru-based surgeon, Dr Saurabh Rai, was forcibly offloaded from an Indigo Airlines flight (6E-541) from Lucknow to Bengaluru on Monday at the Lucknow airport after he complained of mosquitoes onboard the aircraft, according to reports.

Dr. Saurabh Rai, the offloaded passenger, says he was called a terrorist by Indigo and was forced to write an apology letter after he complained of mosquitoes in the plane. pic.twitter.com/bjjXjcjlbY

— News18 (@CNNnews18) April 10, 2018

Meanwhile, the civil aviation minister Suresh Prabhu has tweeted that he has ordered an enquiry into the matter.

I have ordered an enquiry into the incident of off-loading passenger Dr Saurabh Rai by Indigo at Lucknow Airport

— Suresh Prabhu (@sureshpprabhu) April 10, 2018

According to Deccan Chronicle , fellow passengers claimed that Dr Rai, who was seated on seat number 22 C, was manhandled by the staff members and forced to offload the plane and take another flight for Bengaluru. They did not even provide him with a transport to go back to the airport lounge, the report said. Though the Indigo staff at the Lucknow airport refused to talk about the incident, according to News18 , the airline tweeted about the incident on Monday saying: “Rai was offloaded from 6E541 for unruly behaviour. Rai had initially expressed concerns regarding mosquitos on board. Before his concerns could be addressed, he became aggressive and used threatening language,” “…Keeping in mind safety protocols, as well as the passenger’s unruly behaviour, the pilot-in-command decided to offload Mr Rai.”

Clarifying the incident, @IndiGo6E tweets | Mr. Saurabh Rai was offloaded on from 6E541 for unruly behavior. Mr. Rai had initially expressed concerns regarding mosquitos on board. Before his concerns could be addressed, he became aggressive and used threatening language. pic.twitter.com/3dwWXGaskX

— News18 (@CNNnews18) April 10, 2018

The tweet is no longer available on Indigo’s twitter handle. Rai, meanwhile, told CNN-News18 that the matter escalated after the Indigo authorities, after deboarding him from the plane, went further to ask him for a written apology for his behaviour.He said that he is now planning to lodge an official complaint against the airline. In what seems to be a separate incident, ANI reported that passengers aboard a Jet Airways flight in Lucknow met with a similar incident as a video shot by a passenger onboard the flight showed passengers swatting mosquitoes.

#WATCH A video shot by a passenger at Lucknow airport on a Jet Airways flight shows passengers swatting mosquitoes (8.4.18) pic.twitter.com/vVh3LbrMJk — ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) April 10, 2018

Jet Airways issued a statement after the video surfaced.

We have taken this up with our cabin appearance team for review. We sincerely regret the inconvenience: Jet Airways statement on passengers seen swatting mosquitoes on a jet flight at Lucknow airport pic.twitter.com/BqQN0CTQGA

— ANI UP/Uttarakhand (@ANINewsUP) April 10, 2018

Not a first for Indigo

This is not the first time that Indigo airlines has come under scrutiny for manhandling its passengers. In November 2017, Indigo had to apologise to its passenger, Urvashi Parikh Viren, after she fell off her wheelchair while being assisted by its staff at Lucknow airport. The Airports Authority of India had rapped the airline’s staff for gross negligence in servicing its customers.

Similarly, in October 2017, the airline came under media ire after a video showed its ground staff beating a passenger while blocking his way as he tried to board the transit bus. At first, the airline issued a four-page statement defending its staff, saying that they were only acting in self-defence but later IndiGo chief Aditya Ghosh offered his “ personal apologies ” on the incident citing deflection from the Indigo culture.

It is interesting to note in the light of these incidents that a parliamentary committee report  on flier satisfaction, submitted in January 2018, specifically advised IndiGo to adopt a consumer-friendly approach while dealing with passengers.

The committee had also pulled up the Indigo chief for suggesting that his the staff members from tier-II and III cities were often untrained in soft skills and unable to speak fluent English, as many of them went to government schools. The report also criticised the aviation industry as a whole, saying that of all the customer complaints, 30.5 percent flyers had poor customer service experiences.