‘Pregnant women, others waited at tarmac’: Vande Bharat flight passenger

A number of passengers who arrived at the Lucknow Airport by a Vande Bharat flight from Sharjah on May 9 have complained about gross mismanagement causing agony, especially to senior citizens and pregnant women.

While a probe has been ordered by the authorities into the allegations that passengers were made to stand at the tarmac for hours, these 182 passengers have been kept in quarantine at different hotels in the city.

Director of Lucknow Airport AK Sharma said he had set up an inquiry after the matter was brought to his notice.

“It was the duty of the airlines to bring the passengers into the lobby from where they could have gone to their respective quarantine centres. The aim of setting up an inquiry is to see why the passengers suffered and had to wait for hours at the tarmac,” he said.

Colonel (retired) Sharad Awasthi, 66, who boarded the flight with his wife Shikha, 62, from Sharjah after a forced extended stay due to the lockdown, said, “Both of us had been touring the Gulf since January 15 but our plans went haywire due to the disruptions caused by Covid-19 pandemic. However, we were able to return to Lucknow on May 9, but were disappointed to see poor preparations, which caused hardship to the passengers.”

“The flight landed at Lucknow airport around 9 pm , but instead of taking them to the lobby and offering them seats, or water, the passengers were made to stand at the tarmac itself for over two hours. The tarmac was full of mosquitoes and standing there for such a long time after a four-hour long flight was torturous,” Awasthi said, adding, “there were no senior officials to listen to their woes. They could not even use the washroom.”

According to the passengers, there were eight pregnant women, who just couldn’t stand for long and had to sit on the ground. They wanted to use the washroom but were denied permission to leave the tarmac by the security forces manning the area. The security forces, they said, kept saying all the passengers would be allowed to go after they got the requisite instructions.

“The passengers were called three hours in advance at the Sharjah airport and they spent a good four hours inside the flight. Thus, most were desperate to reach their quarantine centre at the earliest,” said one of the passengers in quarantine.

Col Awasthi said, “The situation was difficult for pregnant women and the aged, some of whom showed signs of illness. We husband and wife were already under distress as we both have age-related ailments. We ran out of our stock of medicines around one-and-a-half month back. So, we were not feeling well and wanted to sit somewhere. We needed a glass of water and some snacks but no official of AAI or district administration was present to listen to our problems. I was so surprised to see a photograph of the district magistrate garlanding a passenger published in a daily, while we kept on searching for any official at the airport.”

The passengers alleged that there was no one to guide them.

“There were only policemen and paramilitary personnel to greet us. It was 12 am when we started searching for buses for our hotels,” said Col Awasthi.

A pregnant woman, resident of Kanpur who came from Sharjah and had chosen Radison hotel for her stay, was refused room by the hotel staff because they were not ready to open their hotel for just one person.

Later, the police helped her with another city hotel. However, during all this, no officials of the district administration were seen, Col Awasthi quoted the woman as saying.

Director of Lucknow Airport Sharma said, “We had to maintain social distancing according to the protocol and guidelines. It was our first experience and perhaps some mistakes were made. We will surely improve. It was not only the AAI but a lot of other departments like CISF, district administration that were also involved in the process. However, the airlines are bound to make arrangements for the aged people and women in the flight.

When the question was put to Lucknow divisional commissioner Mukesh Meshram, he said, “We are not aware of any such incident after the flight landed in Lucknow on May 9. If such complaints are made by any passenger, we will definitely probe the matter.”