Passenger headed to funeral shouts at Alphons over flight delay
A video of a woman shouting at Union Tourism Minister KJ Alphons at the Imphal airport has gone viral. Dr Nirala Sinha was miffed at the delay that had been caused to her flight due to President Ram Nath Kovind's arrival, another case of VIP treatment affecting the common man. Despite airlines' attempts, she couldn't make it to her relative's funeral. Here's what happened.
Angry passenger shouting at Alphons
What happened?
Sinha was booked on IndiGo's Imphal-Kolkata flight and GoAir's Kolkata-Patna flight. But departure was delayed as Kovind was about to land. Alphons, waiting at the airport, saw her distressed and enquired. She yells at him, talking about a funeral and saying, "The body'll decay!" When he assures the flight will take off, she demands it in writing, but he says he has no authority.
Alphons reacts to the 'controversy'
"There's no controversy. I told her there's a protocol: when president is landing no flight can take off. Apart from the PM and president there's no protocol for anyone. She had to talk to someone, it's fine that she vented her anger on me."
Airlines then arranged her travel to Patna themselves
Airlines took it upon themselves to arrange her travel to Patna. After her first flight to Kolkata was delayed for over two hours, she ended up missing the second to Patna. IndiGo then booked her on a SpiceJet flight headed to the Bihar capital. GoAir too reportedly refunded her in full "and she flew to Patna". But according to TOI, she missed the funeral.
