Octogenarian Air Passenger’s Death: Why the policy on wheelchairs needs a review

As the profile of air travellers undergo a change, there is indeed a pressing need for change in policies.

An 80-year old man, who travelled from the US to India on a 15-hour long nonstop flight, died at Mumbai airport last week. As he wasn’t readily provided a wheelchair on arrival, the passenger, instead of allowing the airline staff to organise a wheelchair for him, decided to walk along with his spouse who was on a wheelchair. Prima facie, this decision to not wait but walk a distance of about a kilometre within the airport terminal after a long flight seemingly proved to be fatal.

The demise of an octogenarian passenger quite rightly attracted the attention of the media, which vehemently castigated the airline and the airport for failing to provide a wheelchair even though it had been requested many days in advance. What’s the point in having luxurious airports when a basic thing like the wheelchair to an elderly person can’t be provided, a section of the media asked with a touch of sarcasm?

The airline, in its defence, said that there were 15 wheelchairs with attendants available while 32 passengers on that particular flight had requested wheelchairs.

The argument advanced by the airline simply failed to satisfy the media, which while focusing on the news element of death due to failure to provide a wheelchair on time ignored the underlying message that this unfortunate episode had for the senior and super senior citizens who regularly travel between India and the USA to visit their family members.

Unwarranted Requests For Wheelchairs

There is indubitably a case for airlines to provide adequate number of wheelchairs considering that many senior citizens are either infirm due age or have mobility problems in walking from the entrance of the airport terminal to the aircraft for departure, and on arrival from the aircraft to the terminal exit, which could be as much as more than a kilometre away in distance.

The question that begs an answer is why did the airline in this particular instance fail to provide a wheelchair on time? The fact is that all airlines routinely struggle to provide an adequate number of wheelchairs with attendants because the number of passengers requesting wheelchairs has seen a steady rise over the years.

It isn’t uncommon to have as many as 75-80 passengers on one flight seeking wheelchairs – quite a challenging task for the airlines to meet the requirement without a delay since Mumbai airport is one of the busiest in the country. On the day of the incident, Air India had a total of five arrivals and departures with a wheelchair requirement at that particular time span aggregating 200 wheelchairs. Most long-haul flights are bunched within a short span of time in the night hours because of operational requirements.

Is the number of passengers requesting wheelchairs high because a large number of air travellers have mobility issues? Not really. The reality is that more and more senior citizens are seeking the facility of wheelchair not because they can’t traverse the distance to be covered on foot at the airport but because the wheelchair attendant helps them carry their hand bag (invariably heavy) and assists them in immigration clearance – priority is accorded to wheelchair passengers, and also collection of baggage from the conveyor belts. Why not avail these services if one can by seeking a wheelchair is the attitude for many a physically-fit senior citizen.

As the number of wheelchair seekers will only swell as more and more senior citizens travel, the time has perhaps come for a review of the existing policy. First is to segregate the bonafide passengers who have mobility issues from others who are misusing the facility merely for added ease and comfort of travel. Scanning video footage from airports will establish the percentage of passengers able to walk effortlessly once they are out of the airport terminal, after having availed the wheelchair facility inside the airport terminal.

Such a segregation becomes imperative if every genuine request for a wheelchair has to be met, and on time, without making the task unduly onerous and unwieldy for the airlines.

Second, even as India is heading towards becoming the third largest economy the old narrative very often propounded is that passengers can’t afford to pay and the facility of wheelchairs should be offered free of cost by the airlines. This is just not true as many passengers can not only afford but are willing to pay for it. If not for anything a charge needs to be levied to discourage physically fit passengers from requesting a wheelchair. A decade or more ago, passengers seeking wheelchairs were asked by airlines to submit a medical report to justify the request but this practice was done away with. It needs to be reintroduced to prevent misuse.

Long-Haul Flights & Fatigue

Non-stop flights are generally preferred over one-stop flights, which can be of 15-18 hours duration between destinations in India and the US. The one-stop flights can take up to 4-8 hours longer because of the layover time at the intermediate airport from where the connecting flight is to be taken. The fatigue on a long flight cannot be discounted if a passenger is particularly travelling in economy class. It is therefore incumbent on elderly passengers not to be adventurous after a long flight. Wisdom lies in waiting for a few minutes while the airline staff organises a wheelchair.

The unfortunate death should therefore send out a strong message that while airlines do endeavour to provide wheelchairs on departure/arrival once the request for wheelchair has been accepted, senior citizen passengers should exercise patience and not add to travel fatigue by walking, if health doesn’t permit it.

This unfortunate instance should also prod the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) into formulating a realistic policy on wheelchairs so that while bonafide passengers invariably get the wheelchair on request others with no mobility-related health issues do not have the incentive of seeking a wheelchair only for the added ease and comfort of travel.

DGCA, as the regulatory agency, ought to realise that its role isn’t restricted to merely issuing show-cause notices to airlines after every incident but to have the problems investigated for remedial action and revision of policies.

In this particular case, for example, DGCA should ask airport operators to create more space near the gates for passengers to relax as they await wheelchairs. Likewise, the number of buggies need to be augmented so that 6-7 senior citizen passengers at a time can be ferried to the immigration area. Also, for the convenience of those who venture out to walk, some seats need to be provided enroute to immigration area so that if passengers feel fatigued, there is an area to sit and overcome tiredness.

As the profile of air travellers undergo a change, there is indeed a pressing need for change in policies. Let this unfortunate death be the appropriate opportunity for a review.

Jitender Bhargava is former executive director of Air India and author of the book, The Descent of Air India. Views expressed in this article are personal, and do not represent the stand of this publication.