10.35 am: I receive a call from the airport and hear what literally swept the floor off my feet – that my mom is lying unconscious on the airport floor and that blood is oozing out from her.Kawaljit Singh Bhatia in a Facebook post
In a Facebook post on Friday, lawyer Kawaljit Singh Bhatia has alleged that his 53-year-old mother Savita Kaur Bhatia was harassed by Jet Airways officials at Delhi airport on 3 May, causing the heart patient to have a blackout and injure herself in the process.
Speaking exclusively to The Quint, Savita Kaur Bhatia says, “I was bullied by Jet Airways officials when I went to collect my boarding pass. They told me I was late and began throwing my luggage away. They misbehaved and mentally harassed me. Due to the ensuing panic, I had a blackout at the airport. I fell down and injured myself badly. Despite that, the airline officials did not help me at all, not even with first aid.”
The airline has taken up the matter for internal review and assured a thorough probe:
Jet Airways reaffirms its Guest First philosophy which is founded on principles of service excellence. The airline staff demonstrated the very same principles of concern while accepting the senior guest for boarding, despite the guest reporting late at the check-in counter. Subsequently, the guest proceeded for the boarding gate by herself, where she lost consciousness. She was then taken to the airport medical desk for first aid where investigations revealed her to be a diabetic with low haemoglobin. The above facts can be corroborated via CCTV footage available with the airport authorities, a copy of which has also been submitted to law enforcement authorities. Jet Airways strongly denies the allegations made in the social post which do not reflect the airline’s service etiquette, standards and the exact nature of developments that transpired on the day.Jet Airways Spokesperson
Savita Kaur Bhatia’s son, Kawaljit, told The Quint that on the day the incident took place, he filed a 3-page written complaint and submitted it to a senior inspector of Delhi’s T3 Airport Police Station. He also claims to have submitted a complaint to the Delhi airport authorities.
Here is Kawaljit’s entire post on Facebook, narrating his family’s version of the sequence of events.
Savita’s son-in-law, Gurshaan Kohli, who was present with her at the airport for a while on the day of the incident, claims to have informed a senior official of the airline’s customer relations team about the matter.
“I informed Anil D’souza of the airline’s customer relations team in Mumbai even prior to her losing consciousness and falling down. I called him first when she was not being allowed to board. He said he would do the best he can. Later, I informed him after the fall. He asked for two days to look into it. On the 5th, D'souza told me that they have received a report from the station manager at Delhi Airport and that Jet is nowhere to be blamed. And that is when we took to social media.”
Savita Bhatia flew to Kolkata along with her daughter on a Jet Airways flight on the evening of 3 May, the day the incident took place.
A doctor from T3’s Medanta Medical Centre who tended to her at Delhi Airport allegedly told them that the cut she suffered was too deep to be treated there. On landing in Kolkata, she went to her home town of Chandannagar, 35 km from Kolkata, where she was eventually stitched up at United Nursing Home.
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