Paralympic medallist Deepa Malik alleges ill-treatment on plane

Paralympic silver medallist Deepa Malik lodged a formal complaint against Vistara airlines for “poor handling” of wheelchair-bound passengers and “rude and ill-mannered” crew on-board.

Paralympic silver medallist Deepa Malik lodged a formal complaint against Vistara airlines for “poor handling” of wheelchair-bound passengers and “rude and ill-mannered” crew on-board.

Deepa Malik (centre) was in Mumbai to attend a programme with Sachin Tendulkar (2nd from right) on Tuesday along with other Rio Paralympics medal winners. (Pratik Chorge/HT Photo)

Malik was travelling from Mumbai to Delhi via Vistara flight UK 902 on her way back to her Gurgaon home when the incident happened. She also gave a written complaint to the airlines on-board. She alleged that one of the cabin crew members behaved rudely with her when she was informing her mother on the phone that the flight scheduled to depart at 3:35 pm from Mumbai airport was delayed.

“On objecting, she said “sweetheart, chill”,” Malik added.

“...plus wheelchair handling is so poor that you do not know how to shift a person from seat to cabin chair. The entire staff stands and looks at each other for 10 minutes. No action,” she said in the complaint. She alleged that the cabin crew was not ready to help her reach the cabin seat as they were not trained for it.

Deepa, who won a silver medal at Rio Paralympic Games last month, was in Mumbai to attend a programme with Sachin Tendulkar and actor Hrithik Roshan on Tuesday.

The airlines was quick to react to Malik’s tweets and promised to investigate the matter.

Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, Vistara also tweeted an apology and promised an investigation.

“This is not representative of our standards, and we will make it up to you. My sincere apologies,” he said in another tweet.

Vistara is a joint venture of Tata group and Singapore Airlines and has its office in Gurgaon.