New Delhi, Jan 4 (India Today) : Moumita, an advertising professional working in New Delhi, took a SpiceJet flight to Goa on April 10, 2015 from New Delhi. She was travelling to attend an awards function there.
What happened to on the flight is terrible to say the least! Frown
Today, she posted an open letter to her Facebook wall, recounting what happened on that flight. She had to wait till she quit her then job, for purely professional reasons, and shared the incident when she did.
Letter addressed to the "Red, hot airline of India", with subject line as "Shame on you", deserves a read.
She begins her open letter stating some flight attendants tend to behave like trained, well-oriented and "hospitable" mules". Here's why!
Moumita says, "Unfortunately, I asked for a cup of tea and paid the money for it too. Hot water came along with premix tea packet. The boiling hot water accidentally fell on my thigh from the tray table which made me scream at the top of my voice."
"It can happen. It's an accident," she says, "Not an alien one on an airline with turbulence happening all the time. Little kids could also be a victim of something like that." She clarifies it again saying, "The air-hostess DID NOT spill it on me. I repeat, it was an accident".
But what happened after the accident is what the story is about!
The flight attendant not only ignored her scream for help, but continued serving food to other people as if nothing happened. "The unbearable burn made me run to the lavatory only to discover that a large part of skin from my right thigh had started to come off and the pain was getting less bearable with every passing second," Moumita writes.
She shared an image of the burn she suffered with us. Viewer's discretion advised as it might be graphic to some.
When she asked the crew for ice, cold water, and the first aid box, only thing they could manage was a can of not-so-cold Pepsi. And instead of helping, a male attendant approached her asking her to pay for the can.
When a co-passenger doctor suggested something as basic as Burnol/Silverex from the first aid box would help, flight attendants said all they can arrange for is a tube of Soframycin, which obviously wouldn't have helped for a burn that serious.
"I was on bed rest for three weeks. The burn was painful and it has left some awful scars that will take years to fade away with parts that will never fade away at all", she says.
What is the point of her writing this letter now? She explains.
"The purpose of writing this letter is to arrive at a larger point. There is this huge scar on my thigh which might fade away or I may learn to ignore it one day, years later. What I will never forget is a bigger scar that this incident has left on my mind and my heart. The heart of a 25 year old, newly married girl on her way to Goa for a lovely time at an awards function, completely unaware that something like this would happen to her and an airline couldn't even do as much as simply provide a first-aid box or apologize and promise to be careful in the future for the sake of people who choose to fly with them".
She ends her letter with a piece of advice, one for passengers, one for flight attendants - "Next time you're on a flight with these guys, carry your own first-aid box and those who choose to work with these guys, carry your conscience."
It is rather sad passenger air plane companies charge so much but fail to ensure even humanity and service, forget facilities.