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A couple of months ago, a senior citizen suffered multiple fractures as a result of a fall at the Chennai airport. If you think that he slipped on a highly polished floor at the airport lounge, or on a wet surface in the washroom, you are mistaken. The accident happened while he was trying to board the airport bus that was to transfer passengers from the airport terminal to the aircraft. If you see the kind of buses that airlines deploy at airports these days, this news should not come as a surprise. I do not know whose bright idea it was to get these kind of buses, but at many airports these days I find buses that require passengers to climb several steep steps in order to board the bus. I find passengers with heavy hand baggage, struggling to climb up. It is particularly tough for senior citizens and women carrying babies in their arms. How can such buses be ever pressed into service at airports? The use of such buses speaks volumes about the insensitivity of the airline industry and also that of the government that regulates the industry. In fact airports should completely eliminate bus shuttles on the airfields and provide aerobridges for safe movement of passengers from and to the aircraft. Now, if that is not possible immediately, the least that can be done is to provide buses that have low floors and are easy to board. Many of the modern-day low floor buses have ‘kneeling’ suspension that allows the floor to be lowered almost to the road level so that those on wheelchairs can board the bus easily. Passengers can also pull their baggage on board the bus without much sweat. Instead, today, what we have are buses that could well become the leading cause of falls and injuries at airports. What I would like to emphasise here is that providing buses that are not suited for transporting passengers is also deficiency in service. So if passengers are injured while embarking or disembarking from such buses, then such injury is certainly the consequence of the negligence exhibited by the airlines, and the victims have to be compensated. Until and unless airlines are forced to cough up huge amounts as damages, things will not improve. So I would urge those passengers who suffer injuries on account of such buses to file a case before the consumer court, seeking compensation.
I remember the case of Station Manager, Indian Airlines, v Dr Jiteswar Ahir, where Dr Ahir suffered injuries and permanent disability as a result of a steep fall from the door of the aircraft. Here, after Dr Ahir was seated in the aircraft, the ground staff asked him to come down and identify his baggage. Even as he put one step on to the portable ladder, it was pulled away, leading to his fall to the ground below. While awarding him compensation, the highest court in the country had criticised the airline for its callous negligence to passenger safety. In the case of Geeta Jethani vs Airports Authority of India, the AAI was asked to pay compensation to the parents of the young girl, Jyotsna, who met a tragic and horrific end while coming down the escalator at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi on December 14, 1999 (original petition no 81 of 2001, decided in 2004). This was yet another case that highlighted the total absence of safety consciousness in those that run airports. In the last two decades
or so, the courts have awarded compensation in many such cases where
clients have been injured as a result of the negligence of the airline
or the airports authority, the clear message being that negligence
will not be condoned. We, as consumers, now need to ensure that those
buses that are not consumer friendly, or unsafe, are not pressed into
service, and incidents like the one that happened at the Chennai
airport are prevented.
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