Senior citizens face harrowing time at IGI airport, New Delhi

Updated 

4.56am on December 10. Two women senior citizens reach IGI airport New Delhi to take Indigo flight 6E 6065 to Thiruvananthapuram at 6.30am.

The women, aged 62 and 67 years old, were returning home after a short stay in Delhi following a trip to Dubai. They checked in around 5.20am and proceeded to the security gate. 

The women, after their first trip abroad, had couple of bottles of foreign liquor bought from Dubai duty-free shop with them. They carried the bill and bottles in hand. They were unaware that liquor bought from duty-free couldn't be carried in hand at domestic departure, unless it is a direct transfer.

The personnel on duty took away the bottles and the 62-year-old woman to H gate. The other woman, an arthritic, was left to wait at the main security gate. Both the women couldn't communicate in any language other than Malayalam. The woman left alone was clueless about where they took her companion, her sister in law. Mobile phone had signal trouble and she couldn't inform anyone about the same. 

The 62-year-old who was taken to the H gate was asked to put the liquor bottles in her hand bag and check it in. The staff asked her to unpack all her belongings from her hand bag. They even passed comments about the talcum powder she was carrying. She pleaded with them about her flight at 6.30am.

Both the women were traveling from Delhi without assistance for the first time and were clueless about navigating in the airport. At the Indigo counter she was told the gate was closed. She went back to the H gate where the staff seized the bottles and allowed her to go, by when the flight had taken off. 

The 67-year-old is my mother and the other person, my aunt. I left them at the airport and saw them checking in before I left for home in Mayur Vihar. I tried calling them several times to check if all went well but couldn't reach them due to signal trouble. I was shocked when I got a distress call from my mother at 5.55am to tell me my aunt was taken away and that she was waiting there clueless. I was on way home.

Immediately after that I got a call from Indigo saying these two women were yet to board. Before I could inform them about the trouble, the person who called me disconnected and never attended my calls later. I commuted 27km back to the airport during which I made multiple calls for help. Finally I requested Indigo staff to help them exit and escort them outside. 

My aunt who is a BP, cardiac patient and diabetic, was visibly traumatised while my mother seemed exhausted. 

It is perfectly fine that the personnel did their duty by seizing the liquor bottles. But why did they harass two women senior citizens, leading to them missing their flight? With all due respect to the men in uniform and airlines staff, I was shocked the way they treated my aunt. She had to take medicines to regain her pace after the harrowing time at the H gate. 

I reported the matter to the airport manager who asked me to post a grievance in the air sewa app. I was baffled to know that there's no help for passengers for such a major flaw from the personnel at the airport.

After multi-level interventions, I got the liquor bottles back, which I wouldn't have bothered about had they got their flight. I had to book another flight for my mother and aunt by coughing up an extra amount of ₹20,000. 

The entire running around and trouble was totally avoidable if the staff had acted sensibly. They could have kept the bottles and let the women go. Knowing that they were helpless, without being able to converse in Hindi or English, they were subjected to unnecessary harassment. 

Experiences like this affect people's confidence in the system. Hope authorities take note so that such incidents don't recur.

CISF DIG clarifies
After the above post was shared widely on social media, CISF DIG Shrikant Kishore clarified over telephone that the security personnel were not at fault. Referring to CCTV footage from the area, the officer said the delay happened from Indigo's side. He claimed that immediately after the security check, the passengers were asked to go to the Indigo counter and put the liquor bottles in the checked-in bag. 

"We often go out of the way to help passengers. It was bad that the passengers missed their flight but it wasn't a delay from our side," Kishore said.   

As per the evidence Kishore shared in the form of CCTV images and clippings, my mom and aunt went through security check around 5.35 am. They were asked to put the liquor bottles in check-in bag. My mother waited there while my aunt was taken from there along with the liquor bottles. It wasn't clear who took her from the security gate.

Later visuals recorded between 5.50 and 5.55am show my aunt being turned away from one airline counter to another. She was visibly traumatised and is seen  pleading with them with the boarding pass. I don't have the visuals of what happened at the second counter at 5.55. 

An image later shows the bottles kept at the desk of the airlines counter. The CISF has marked it as the point from where the bottles were later handed over to us. Time isn't clear in the image.

Indigo's version

"We understand that the passengers were only conversant in Malayalam, therefore there was a communication gap between the passengers and our Delhi Airport staff, who tried to communicate the requirement to remove the liquor bottles. IndiGo’s airport staff also immediately sent an internal alert to look for any staff members who could speak Malayalam.

At IndiGo, our endeavor is to assist our valued passengers at all times, therefore with an intention to help the passengers reach their destination, our airport team offered to accommodate them on the next available flight, subject to payment of applicable charges i.e. the difference in fare and re-accommodation charges, which we understand were accepted by them, and they duly travelled to Thiruvananthapuram."

- As per the details submitted by the customer relations executive.

However, they decided to refund half the amount we paid extra for the new tickets in the form of travel vouchers.