Airports on slippery ground

Pushpa Girimaji

Last fortnight, my 80-year-old uncle fell on the slippery floor of a domestic airport and broke one of his knees. Even though he is 80 years old, he is healthy, active, has good eye sight and is a globetrotter. His fall was the result of a slippery and wet floor — it was being cleaned without a warning board. Can we hold the airport administration responsible for the unfortunate injury?

This is indeed unfortunate. Today, most airports around the country are being re-designed, expanded and modernised, but at many of these places, I find that very little attention is paid to the safety of the passengers, particularly senior citizens, pregnant women and children. As a result, many of them have used floors that look beautiful, but are very slippery and, therefore, unsafe.

Similarly, many airports deploy high floor buses — that are anything but consumer friendly — to transfer passengers from the airport terminal to the aircraft. Their steep, narrow and sometimes meandering steps make it extremely difficult for passengers, particularly senior citizens and those carrying heavy baggage and babies, to climb into the bus or disembark.

Some years ago, a senior citizen in Chennai suffered multiple fractures while getting down from one such bus. More recently, I was witness to an elderly woman tripping while climbing into one such bus. Fortunately, a co-passenger held her and prevented a fall. It’s time for the airlines and the airport authority to think more about passenger safety and ensure that the airports are safe in all respects. In fact, airports should completely eliminate bus shuttles on the airfields and provide aerobridges for the safe movement of passengers from and to the aircraft. If that is not possible immediately in case of no-frill airlines, the least that can be done is to provide buses that have low floors and are easy to board.

Similarly, airports should have slip-proof flooring. Today, you get a wide variety of slip-proof flooring material and that is what ought to be used in all public places, including airports. Or else, those who build and manage the airports as well as those who supervise them will be liable for the consequences. Similarly, uneven floors should be clearly demarcated and adequately lighted, so that people do not trip and fall over such floor.

Having said that, I must point out that in your uncle’s case, the Airports Authority of India as well as the agency in charge of cleaning/maintenance of the airport should be held liable for the injury caused o your uncle. In this case, first and foremost, the floor was slippery.

Secondly, it was being mopped, which made it even more slippery and dangerous. So, in order to ensure the safety of passengers, the area being mopped should have been cordoned off with a suitable warning that the flooring is wet. Obviously, even this basic minimum precaution was not taken, resulting in the injury to your uncle. He must lodge a complaint before the consumer court and seek reimbursement of all medical expenses, besides compensation for the pain and suffering, besides any other losses undergone.

Can you please quote a similar case, if any, brought before the consumer court?

Some years ago, the West Bengal State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission adjudicated over a complaint filed against the Airports Authority of India (AAI) by a 65-year-old passenger, who fell at the Kolkata airport and broke his right knee. Blaming the slippery floor for the accident, he sought compensation from the AAI. Even though the Commission concluded that the complainant had not proved any fault with the flooring, taking into consideration the circumstances of the case, it awarded an ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000. (Karuna Ketan Biswas Vs Airports Authority of India, Case No: CC/45 of 2010, decided on 30-5-2013.)

I think the AAI was lucky because around the same time, another passenger, Diana Sarkar, broke her knee cap from a fall on a slippery floor at the Chicago O’Hare International airport in Chicago and got a compensation of $ 8,00,000 (more than Rs 5 crore) for the injury and pain besides loss of earnings. Her contention was that the airport management had failed to warn the passengers of some oily substance on the floor, nor it they removed it, resulting in her fall.

Your uncle has a strong case. I really hope that, at least in future, airports will junk high-floor buses and replace slippery floors with consumer-friendly, slip-resistant floors and also ensure that the airports are consumer friendly, particularly for those with limited mobility and senior citizens.