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Airlines explains offloading of special child
Airlines explains offloading of special child Nation Written by Butch Fernandez / Reporter Thursday, 07 January 2010 21:28 SENATE Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. on Thursday denounced Cebu Pacific Airlines for its policy that disallowed a special child and his mother from boarding a Manila-bound flight from Hong Kong on December 23.
Pimentel prodded the aggrieved mother, Mylene Alcantara, to file a damage suit against Cebu Pacific to prevent a repeat of the incident.
โA case for damages can be filed against the airline,โ he said, even as he expects human-rights advocates to also raise a howl of protest against Cebu Pacificโs alleged discriminatory policy.
โI cannot understand why a special child should be made to get out of the plane,โ Pimentel said. He added that Cebu Pacific has a lot of explaining to do as it put the airline in a negative light.
In a separate interview, former senator Tito Sotto urged travelers to โ boycott Cebu Pacific for the obvious discrimination the airline inflicted against the special child.โ
โA boycott of Cebu Pacific is called for because what they did to Mrs. Alcantara and her son is not right,โ Sotto said.
Pimentel and Sotto aired their concerns following reports that a Cebu Pacific flight crew manning a Hong Kong-to-Manila flight on December 23 asked Alcantara and her son to get off the plane, claiming the airline does not allow a special child onboard its aircraft.
It was reported that the airline personnel invoked a Cebu Pacific manual that disallows โmentally illโ passengers from boarding the plane.
Alcantara tried to explain, however, that her 10-year-old son is not a mentally ill person and is only afflicted with Down Syndrome.
According to lawyer Salvador Panelo, Cebu Pacific personnel had no legal basis for asking the special child to get off the plane. โSpecial children are not qualified as mentally ill passengers and that is why Alcantara can press civil and criminal charges against the airline,โ Panelo said.
It was also learned that Cebu Pacific management had conveyed its apology to Alcantara and her son, as well as other airline passengers who were inconvenienced by the incident that caused a one-hour flight delay.
In a statement, Cebu Pacific said it has no policy that discriminates against persons with special needs.
โThe attempt to offload a passenger with developmental disability on a December 23 flight from Hong Kong to Manila was a result of the cabin crewโs misinterpretation of government regulations designed to assure the safety of passengers.โ
The statement said that Cebu Pacific has apologized to the passenger and sincerely regrets the incident. It has also taken all the necessary measures to make sure similar incidents do not happen again and that passengers with special needs are properly attended to.
Additional Information
Country: Cuba
Website: http://businessmirror.com.ph/home/nation/20666-airlines-explains-offloading- of-special-child.html
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Source: Email from: MORI, Soya
When: 06/3/2010
