Offloaded for 8kg weight gain

It was a matter of just extra seven to eight kg which led to Shobhana Raichura being allegedly offloaded from her British Airways (BA) flight to London (return ticket number 125-2435946744 issued on November 19 from London).

Raichura, 49, a Tanzanian citizen with a British passport, came to India in November for a relative’s funeral. She was to travel back on January 1on BA flight number 0198, in the world-traveller class at 13:40.

“I arrived at the airport from Pune and checked in. After the luggage was weighed, it was found to be seven to eight kg above the permissible limit. I was told by the BA duty manager to pay extra baggage charges of Rs8000 or rearrange my load by buying a new bag which could go as the cabin baggage. I just had Rs150 in my hand. The duty manager then told me that I was being offloaded from the flight and was told that I would be accommodated in the next flight which was at 2am next day. They also told me the flight was full and I was kept on the waiting list.”

BA allows a passenger to carry 23.5 kg and the permissible weight limit for hand-held luggage allowed in the cabin is what the passenger can lift above his head. According to Raichura, when she boarded the flight from London, her baggage was also over the permissible limit. Yet she was allowed to travel.

According to an eye witness Gnetahn Jehman, “We offered help to this passenger by asking the BA staff if a co-passenger could carry some of her luggage. That was refused on security grounds. It is inhuman. Moreover, when we inquired of her status on the next fight, we were told that it was full and that she should take a fresh ticket and pay a charge for changing flights. We were also given the BA reservation number only to be told that it was closed for the day.”

An airline does not take responsibility for an off-loaded passenger. Hence, Raichura was left stranded at the airport with no money. It was not clear whether she would be able to make it to London the next day. Raichura, a housewife in London, doesn’t have money. Nor does she have any credit cards to pay for fresh tickets.

In fact, she doesn’t even have any relatives to bank on in India. She does not even have a cell phone. Somebody at the airport helped her to call up her husband in the UK. However, travel experts say there is a possibility that Raichura would have forgot to get a 72-hour mandatory reconfirmation of her ticket with the airlines and could have been offloaded because of the flight being full.

BA was not available for comments despite repeated attempts. No calls were entertained at the airport numbers and the recorded message said BA officials would be available later in the night.