Post Surgery Cancer Patient Deboared in New Delhi by American Airlines

NEW DELHI: An incident regarding the deboarding of a female cancer patient has attracted criticism from various circles to American Airlines.

The incident took place on a New Delhi to New York flight operated by American Airways on January 30. A female cancer patient who had undergone a surgical procedure recently requested assistance from a flight attendant regarding putting her hand baggage in the overhead cabin of the plane. But this led to the airline deboarding her from the scheduled flight.

The passenger identified as Meenakshi Sengupta lodged a complaint regarding the incident with Delhi Police. She had asked for wheelchair assistance and mentioned that she was wearing a brace and her discomfort was clearly visible. Owing to the recent surgery, she was unable to carry any weight and hence asked the attendant for help.

Meenakshi Sengupta said, "The ground staff was very supportive and helped me get into the aircraft and put my handbag on the side of the seat. Once inside the flight, I had a conversation with the air hostess and I explained my health condition to them...None of them mentioned putting my handbag away. After the flight was about to take off, cabin lights were dimmed. At that time an air hostess came to put my hand bag in the overhead compartment. I requested her to help me put it but she refused to do so and told me it's not her job to do it."

She mentioned that after repeated requests, the attendants declined to help her and were extremely rude and arrogant. And they went on to ask her to de-board if she was so uncomfortable regarding the flight and finally decided to take her off the flight.

The details of the incident went viral over social media with people across the country asking the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Delhi Commission for Women to take a close look into the incident.

While the Directorate General of Civil aviation has asked the airline to submit a report regarding the matter, they released a statement saying that "a disruptive customer was removed from the aircraft for failure to follow crew member instructions".

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