 "Air India")
Air India was fined Rs 30 lakh by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on Thursday over the death of an elderly person, who died two weeks ago after an incident related to a request for a wheelchair at the Mumbai airport.
The man, in his 80s, died on February 12 after collapsing when he decided to walk after being told by Air India that the waiting time for the wheelchair was long due to heavy demand.
"In an unfortunate incident, one of our guests flying from New York to Mumbai on February 12, fell ill while proceeding to clear immigration with his wife, who was in a wheelchair," the airline had said following the incident.
What was the incident involving wheelchair?
The airline said that the passenger was told to wait due to high demand for a wheelchair but decided to walk instead.
After the man collapsed while attending the immigration process, the airport doctor had advised to rush him to the hospital, where he was declared dead by the doctors.
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Air India fined Rs 1 crore for safety violations
Notably, the airline was fined Rs 1 crore in January for alleged safety violations. The DGCA had carried out a probe into the matter following a safety report submitted by an airline employee, which detailed the violations.
The matter related to leased aircraft operated by the airline.
"Since the said operations of the leased aircraft were not in line with regulatory/ OEM performance limits, DGCA has initiated enforcement action and imposed a penalty of Rs 1.10 crore on Air India," DGCA said in the release.
In response, Air India had disagreed with the penalty.
