Air India -Airport red tape strangles HIV+ Mizo girl's last wish

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Airport red tape strangles HIV+ Mizo girl's last wish

MANGALORE/KOLKATA: A 22-year-old HIV-positive Mizo girl — counting her last

breaths — tried desperately to reach home to see her parents, but Airoprt Red

Tape strangled her last wish. Mawii died at Kolkata airport on Tuesday after

being turned away by Air India officials on Monday.

Mawii was being treated at Bangalore's Bowring Hospital and had taken a

fit-to-fly certificate from there, said former Bangalore police commissioner and

ex-MP H T Sangliana. But in Kolkata, AI officials wanted another fitness

certificate when she tried to catch the connecting flight to Aizawl. " I tried to

reason with the airline officials, but to no avail. I again got a medical

fitness certificate and faxed it to them, but they still refused to relent, "

said Sangliana.

Mawii was booked on a Kolkata-Aizawl Kingfisher flight on Tuesday, but died

before she could board the plane. AI officials maintained that they could not

bend rules laid down by the Director General of Civil Aviation.

According to Sangliana, who had made Mawii's travel arrangements, she boarded a

flight from Bangalore without hassle at 6 am on Monday. The connecting flight

from Kolkata to Aizawl was at 11 am. But AI officials wanted a fitness

certificate taken in Kolkata before she could board the flight. She went back

disheartened.

On Tuesday morning, Mawii returned to take a Kingfisher flight. She was sitting

in the domestic lounge, when she suddenly seem-ed to fall asleep. When she could

not be roused, two family members called a doctor, who declared her dead. Her

body was taken to Mizoram House and is likely to be flown to Aizawl on Wednesday

morning.

AI officials in Kolkata said the wheelchair-bound woman was " fit " when she

travelled from Bangalore to Kolkata but fell ill later on Monday morning. " Mawii

had a through boarding pass and went to the security hold but fell ill. Doctors

at Kolkata airport refused to issue her a fit-to-fly certificate and referred

her to a nursing home. We took her to a private hospital, where she was advised

to take admission. But her family refused and shifted her to Mizoram House

instead, " said a spokesperson.

He also claimed that Mawii possessed only a paper that stated " she is ill and be

kindly permitted to fly " . " It was not a valid certificate as the doctor's

registration number was not mentioned. If she had to fly, a doctor should have

accompanied her. We acted as per DGCA norms. "

A Kingfisher Airlines official in Kolkata said Mawii's relatives had not

declared that she was a patient. " If we had found her unwell during boarding, we

would have demanded a fit-to-fly certificate as well, " he said.

A furious Sangliana lashed out at the airline officials, saying it was " inhuman

not to grant a person her last wish " . " Now, the body has to be embalmed and sent

to her parents, the cost of which they cannot afford. All these inconveniences

could have been avoided if the officials had shown a little understanding, " he

said.

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