Indian passengers complain of discrimination by Air France

The passengers of the flight AF025 alleged that while they had to remain at the airport,people with American passports were given transit visas,provided accommodation and taken care of.

Complaining of discrimination and insensitivity towards them,a passenger Gwyneth Alphonso said,”We were not put on the immediate connecting flight on the same day. We were told that we have to just adjust within the environment. (Those) who held American passports were given visas and accommodation and were taken care of. But we who had Indian passports were the only ones to be denied any kind of help at that place”.

The passengers said the airline extended an apology to the passengers through an SMS.

Over 50 Indian passengers had on May 12 accused Air France of ‘racial’ profiling at Paris airport where they were stuck while in transit after their aircraft developed a technical problem,a charge denied by the airline.

The passengers said their plane had left Washington three hours behind schedule due to a technical problem and that they had barely 20 minutes in hand after arrival in Paris to take their connecting flight to Mumbai. They said they just could not make it to the connecting flight.

Another passenger Jagdish Patankar,who had to spent the night in the ‘sanitised’ area at the airport,said,”It shows total insensitivity towards the incidence. For six hours,we were in that area. We were provided with water,were not provided with juice or food or anything. We were all there just stranded.”

The passengers said they were finally put on a flight to Mumbai after they protested.