No more tears, nor strength to fight...

Nightmare! Lost wheelchair, rude stewardess

by Jayampathy Jayasinghe

It was a long and an agonizing flight from Colombo in January which took more than 20 hours to reach Frankfort Germany. The delay was a nightmare for Senerath Attanayake, a polio stricken disabled person confined to a wheelchair, since the age of two. It was a ghastly and a harrowing experience for him when he discovered that his two wheelchairs, a motorised and a manual one, missing when he arrived at the Frankfurt airport. Imagine the plight of a crippled person in a strange country without help from any quarter, minus his wheelchairs.

The person concerned is Senerath Attanayake the ex- Minister for Agriculture, Land, Irrigation, Forestry of Uva Provincial Council and the acting Chief Minister of the Uva Provincial Council. He was the first invalid politician to be elected to the high office, and the first disabled person to take oaths as an attorney-at-law. It was somewhere in January when Attanayake flew to Germany to attend a trade exhibition.

The purpose of his visit was to promote his products internationally and to obtain further orders. Several Export Development Board (EDB) officials too had attended the trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany. It was a tedious flight for an invalid person.

Not being a direct flight, he had to disembark at Doha and catch the connecting flight to Frankfurt Germany after languishing several hours at airports.

On the day of the flight, Attanayake had arrived early in the morning at the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) accompanied by his wife and a friend. He was perched on a wheelchair. The three of them were bound for Frankfort Germany that day.

After boarding the plane, to his dismay, the stewardess in the business class had told him in a rude, unprofessional manner, to disembark due to a delay in the flight. She wasn't even concerned about providing him the cushion of his wheelchair, while disembarking. Attanayake was shocked beyond words about the callous attitude of the air stewardess. Then came the inordinate delay of his flight for more than six hours which he had to endure. Left with little choice, he was forced to hang around at the airport till the flight finally resumed.

Not being a direct flight, he was in transit at the Doha airport. At the Doha airport he had to languish for another seven hours before catching the next flight to Frankfurt, Germany. After disembarking at the Doha airport he requested the airline officials that he be taken to a rest-room before the next flight resumes. But instead, they kept him there and took him directly to the aircraft. "An Indian guy on duty at the Doha airport was rude to me. He even refused to take me to the toilet," Attanayake said.

Finally, he arrived at the Frankfurt airport thoroughly exhausted after 20 hours or more. At the Frankfurt airport, Attanayake was provided with a wheelchair by the airport officials. But to his horror he discovered that both his electric and the manual wheelchairs were missing at the Frankfurt airport's cargo section.

Ostensibly, the equipment had not been shipped from the Doha airport. It was a harrowing experience for him once again. He was furious, because, without the wheelchair he could not attend to any of his work. After all, he had come on a business visit and had flown all the way from Sri Lanka. He said it was the worst ordeal he faced while on an overseas trip. On his previous visits to USA, UK, and Japan he had taken his motorised wheelchair without any hassle.

The airline which he travelled in had not provided him with any information about the location of his wheelchairs. They too were simply bemused. As a result it had taken him over three hours at the Frankfurt airport moving from place to place in search of his wheelchairs.

Finally, he lodged a complaint at the airline desk. His airline staff had not even bothered to provide him with a temporary electric wheel chair to get over the difficulty. Realising the plight that he was in, the staff at the Lufthansa Special Service Desk were sympathetic and provided him with a wheelchair. They even allowed him to take the wheelchair to his hotel.

After undergoing agony for three days in Germany, both the motorised and the manual wheelchairs arrived at the Frankfurt airport, damaged. The electrical wheelchair was badly damaged and was without its batteries.

When he inquired about the batteries, the airline staff told him that owing to the risk of "sparking" it was left behind at Doha airport. He told them that he had taken the wheelchair on overseas assignments before, and that dry cell batteries do not spark. However, prior to his departure from Colombo, the airline staff had not objected about a motorised wheel chair being taken on the flight.

Attanayake says the incident had put him under great mental and physical stress. Besides, his business had suffered extensively in him not being able to carry out his marketing strategy at the Exhibition in Frankfurt. Furthermore, he says his main intention is to bring the rights of the disabled persons to the forefront. The county is rarely aware of the legal remedies available to people living with disabilities.

The disabled community need to be aware of their rights, and have to struggle against any discrimination and prejudices. Recalling his traumatic experience, he says it was the bounden duty of the airline concerned to pay special attention to a disabled person with due respect and care.