New Delhi: DGCA has amended its rules for boarding specially-abled passengers on flights, the Government informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday. The information was shared by Minister of State of Civil Aviation General (Retd) V K Singh in a written reply to a question regarding a specially-abled child along with his parents being denied boarding by an airline for the Ranchi-Hyderabad flight on May 7.
The MoS further stated that the objective behind amending the said rules was to avoid the occurrence of such unpleasant instances in future. "DGCA has now revised CAR Section 3 - Air Transport, Series M Part IV titled 'Carriage by Air-Persons with Disability and/or Persons with Reduced Mobility' on 22 July, 2022, in order to avoid occurrence of such an unpleasant instances in future," stated Singh.
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He further stated that the related rules have the provision for conducting the training programme as per the training module provided by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, for all personnel of airlines, airport operators, security, customs and immigration bureau organizations engaged in passenger services for sensitization and developing awareness for assisting persons with disability or reduced mobility.
As per the amended rules, Indian carriers now cannot refuse carriage on the basis of disability. Nevertheless, if airline staff believes that the health of a certain passenger may deteriorate in flight, such passenger must be examined in person by a doctor. The medical professional will then state whether the passenger is fit to fly or not. Later, the airline has to now specify the exact reasons for this in writing.
The MoS further stated that there was an incident of denied boarding for a specially-abled child along with his parents by an airline for the Ranchi-Hyderabad flight on May 7. " Based on the report of Fact Finding Committee constituted by Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to enquire this incident, a penalty of Rs. 5,00,000/- was imposed on the airline," he added.
