India's best airline Vistara slammed for 'forgetting' a blind woman on flight after landing
Man slams Vistara for forgetting blind mother on flight. Photo: Vistara/X, designerayushkejriwal/Instagram
Vistara was the only Indian airline to feature in the top 20 best airlines in the world in 2023 by the Skytrax World Airlines Awards. But despite this reputation, Vistara seems to have fallen short of giving flyers the best service as a man slammed the airline for 'forgetting' his blind mother on a recent flight from Delhi to Kolkata.
Ayush Kejriwal took to Instagram to raise alarm over the issue after being allegedly not getting a good response from the airlines.
What happened?
- Sharing the details of what happened Kejriwal said that his blind mother was travelling alone from Delhi to Kolkata on August 31 and an assisted travel plan so she could be assisted by airline staff throughout her journey.
- When the flight landed in Kolkata, she was told to wait for the staff to come around to help her get off the plane as the rest of the passengers deboarded.
- Kejriwal said that his mother waited patiently for around 20-25 minutes. All the passengers had deboarded by then, but nobody came to get her.
- It was when his mother realised that the cleaners had boarded the flight that she raised an alarm.
- It was after she alerted one of the cleaners that she was helped to get off the flight. Essentially the staff had 'forgotten' about the lady.
- Kejriwal said that the situation could have turned scary and dangerous for his vulnerable mother since the flight was supposed to take off for Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- Kejriwal also said that they got in touch with Vistara Airlines over the incident, asking them for an explanation, but they did not deem it necessary to respond.
- Ayush Kejriwal posted the incident in hopes that it wouldn't happen to other people. Moreover, he's also worried about his mother's safety since she is supposed to take another flight from Kolkata to Delhi in a few days.
Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, responded to Ayush Kejriwal's video on Instagram saying that they "deeply regret" the experience he had with them.
However, people in the comment section called Vistara irresponsible and the entire incident sad.
The incident comes a few months after Vistara was called out by another flyer after being asked to furnish a "cremation centre receipt" when he tried to reschedule his flight due to a family emergency.
There have also been incidents of airline staff behaving rudely or being irresponsible towards their specially-abled flyers. Just last year, Indigo was fined for not allowing a child with special needs to board a flight.