NCDRC orders Lufthansa, British Airways to pay ₹50 lakh compensation to passenger detained abroad after being re-routed without transit visa

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) recently ordered Lufthansa German Airlines and British Airways to collectively pay a compensation of ₹50 lakh for the harrowing experience that a senior woman passenger had to undergo after she was unilaterally re-routed by the airlines [Harsharn Kaur Dhaliawal v. Lufthansa German Airlines and ors.]..Pertinently, she was re-routed without checking if she had a valid visa for the transit stop, leading to her being detained by local authorities for several hours in Copenhagen. .The Commission noted that she was eventually allowed to leave Denmark and return to India via Turkey, only after her husband, a former High Court judge, intervened from India and was able to communicate with the authorities in Copenhagen to convince them of the bonafides of his wife. .Presiding officer, Dinesh Singh and Member, Justice Karuna Nand Bajpayee noted that the passenger’s ordeal lasted for about 13 hours, from about 10 PM on March 20, 2018 till about 11.50 AM on March 21, 2018..An innocent lady had to undergo such a harrowing experience for no fault of her own, the bench observed. She was treated like an "insidious suspect" in a foreign land, where she remained unheard and un-understood for long hours, thousands of miles away from home and where the sobbing lone elderly lady could not evoke any compunction from the authorities, the Commission further remarked. .The incident took place in March 2018, when the woman passenger was scheduled to return from a trip in San Francisco to New Delhi via Frankfurt, Germany.She boarded the first flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt, Lufthansa German Airlines flight LH-455 on March 19. However, after about three hours of waiting, she was told to de-board as the flight would not be taking off.At this point, Lufthansa re-routed her journey so that she would have to board a British Airways flight from San Francisco, which would take her to Copenhagen, Denmark, from where she could board an Air India flight to New Delhi.The Commission was informed that she was not offered the option for a refund, but simply handed over the new flight tickets. Further, neither Lufthansa nor British Airways checked whether the passenger possessed the visa required at the transit stop, that is, Copenhagen. She was not consulted about the visas or the passport she held.Pertinently, she did not hold the visa required for a stop at Copenhagen, Denmark.The British Airways flight that was to take her to Copenhagen arrived late and by the time she reached the transit stop, the Air India flight she was scheduled to catch had already departed for India.As a result she was left stranded in Copenhagen without a valid visa, leading to her detention by the local police.The Commission’s order recorded that she spent a number of hours in detention, throughout the night and early morning, before she was ultimately allowed to leave Copenhagen..The NCDRC said that the curtailment of liberty, even for a "very short" duration, cannot be treated as a simple matter.“Liberty is the very essence of human existence. Its curtailment, even if for a “very short” duration, with the concomitant stigmatic insult as well as the depthless fear of further legal consequences, and that too for no fault or act attributable to the person being detained, cannot be treated as a simple matter of no particular significance, the injury suffered needs to be seen as what it actually is," the order stated..The NCDRC further made it clear that both Lufthansa and the British Airways were responsible for the debacle.“She was pushed into this precarious situation by the negligent apathy and deficient conduct of the two airlines,” the NCDRC found. .It was noted that, apart from the failure to check the visa requirements for the transit stop, the two airlines had failed on several other counts such as in not having any officials in Copenhagen to assist the passenger, in not providing wheel-chair assistance, a suitable diet or drinking water and not attempting to communicate between themselves or with the authorities at Copenhagen.The Commission also factored in that the two airlines had not conducted any fact finding inquiry over the incident, or expressed regret or apology..Hence, Lufthansa German Airlines was ordered to pay ₹30 lakh as compensation, while British Airways was ordered to pay ₹ 20 lakh , both with an interest at 5% per annum from the date of the incident (March 19, 2018) till payment.The compensation was ordered to be paid within eight weeks’ time.Before parting with the matter, the NCDRC also advised the two air carriers to introspect so that such incidents do not re-occur.“The two airlines, through their respective senior-most officials stationed in India, shall be better advised to introspect into the facts and happenings of the present case with all seriousness, and, while fixing responsibility and accountability, also inculcate and imbibe systemic improvements for future so that such trouble and trauma are avoided to passengers at large in future," the order stated..[Read Order]