Patna, June 14: Kingfisher Airlines today asked Supriya Sagar, a guest service agent at the city airport, to not report to work till further notice in connection with a case of alleged misbehaviour with a visually challenged passenger.

Sagar is the third employee of the airlines to be suspended in this case. On June 9, two other employees of the airlines, Shuddho Ghosh, the airport manager of Kingfisher at Patna, and supervisor Shamim Ahmed were also suspended.

Sources said on May 30, when Mohammad Asif Iqbal, a visually challenged passenger, boarded the Kingfisher Patna-Ranchi-Mumbai flight IT 3571, the ground staff “harassed” him. The flight was scheduled to depart from Patna for Ranchi at 2:05pm.

Iqbal later filed a passenger harassment complaint with the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA). According to the complaint, he was initially denied a boarding pass at the counter at Patna airport as he is visually challenged. After the initial denial, the ground staff of Kingfisher demanded that he sign an indemnity bond stating that he was travelling at his own risk. Only then was he allowed to board the aircraft.

“Initially, I was not given the boarding pass at the Kingfisher counter at Patna airport. I was made to wait while other passengers got their boarding passes cleared. After repeated requests and signing an indemnity bond, which is against DGCA rules, I was finally given the boarding pass and the permission to board the aircraft. Shamim Ahmed, who was the station in-charge at that time, misbehaved with me,” Iqbal told The Telegraph.

Airline sources said Ghosh was not on duty that day. Sources in civil aviation industry claimed that the regulations with respect to boarding of completely visually challenged passengers in Kingfisher aircraft were not very clear. Immediately after the incident, the airlines issued fresh guidelines regarding the boarding of visually impaired passengers, around 5pm on May 30.

Responding to the suspension of the airline employees, Iqbal said, “Some of them misbehaved with me and I endured the unnecessary hassle of signing an indemnity bond. That is the reason I made the complaint. However, I did not want either Ghosh or Supriya to lose their jobs. I am aware of the fact that Ghosh was not on duty that day. But whatever action has been taken against him is an internal matter of the airlines. Moreover, Supriya is a wonderful, kind-hearted and affectionate girl. I believe that it is only because of her that I got the opportunity to board the aircraft that day.”

Landing woes

The delay in the repair of the instrument landing system (ILS) at Patna airport will complicate problems for aircraft landing at and taking off from Patna airport with the arrival of rains in a couple of days.

Sources said it would take eight more days for the ILS/glide path at Patna airport to resume its operations. The ILS/glide path is under maintenance since May 2.

Yesterday, the air traffic control at Patna airport issued a notice to airmen to operators informing them that the services of ILS/glide path would not be available till June 22.