Elderly woman falls while deboarding IndiGo flight, daughter slams ‘callous’ cabin crew for lack of support

CHENNAI: A passenger has called out IndiGo airlines over their staff’s alleged insensitive treatment to her mother after she tripped while deboarding their aircraft at the Lucknow airport. The indifferent staff did not offer any assistance to the elderly woman who sustained an injury due to the fall and had to undergo a hip replacement surgery, wrote Subha Gowrishankar, the daughter of the victim, in a LinkedIn post.

The incident happened last week when Subha, her mother, and her cousin had taken an IndiGo flight from Chennai to Lucknow. Her mother, a senior citizen, was allocated a seat in the first row under a separate PNR, while she and her cousin were seated behind. While disembarking, her mother tripped and fell from the aircraft onto the aerobridge.

However, none of the cabin crew members present offered her any assistance and merely instructed her to move aside so that other passengers could continue deboarding, alleged Subha. “Not once did any crew member offer her water or any form of basic support—even though it was evident that she could not move her left leg and was clearly in distress,” she added.

Her mother lay on the ground in pain, unable to get up, untill a fellow passenger alerted Subha, who was still inside the aircraft waiting for her turn to deboard. When Subha rushed to the cabin crew to inquire about her mother, “the crew member callously responded that my mother was “crying,” without any explanation or urgency,” the post read.

Eventually, a differently-abled passenger in a wheelchair assisted the elderly woman, and she was taken to a private hospital in Lucknow where she underwent hip replacement surgery and is currently recovering, Subha said.

When she emailed IndiGo’s customer service about the incident, she was told that the cabin crew was only following protocol. Expressing her frustration in her post, Subha wrote, "I am appalled by the lethargic, cold attitude displayed by IndiGo (InterGlobe Aviation Ltd)'s cabin crew. How can an airline that prides itself on punctuality and service allow such inhumane treatment, especially toward a senior citizen? Ask yourself—would you treat your own parents this way? I once held IndiGo Airlines in high regard, but this experience has shattered that opinion completely. The thought of the pain she endured for those fifteen agonizing minutes—compounded by the indifference of their staff—is unbearable,” she expressed.

Concluding her post, Subha has demanded a prompt and detailed response from the airline’s senior management, stating that no other senior citizen should have to endure such treatment in the future.