Mumbai: While India is raving about Sania Mirza and Saina Nehwal reaching the top of world rankings in their respective sports, former World No 1 shooters Heena Sidhu and Anjali Bhagwat were recently at the mercy of a private airlines.
This airline refused to carry the shooting equipment the duo had on their way back home from the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Korea. The reason cited was because of incomplete documents.
According to a report in the ‘Hindustan Times’, the pair were refused boarding by Jet Airways after they arrived at the Bangkok airport around 12.30 am on Tuesday. Because of that, their wait at the airport stretched to a painful 21 hours before they could come home by an Air India flight. Air India did not have any problems with the documentation of the equipment.
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Confirming the incident, Heena Sidhu was quoted in the report, “It was harassment. We were not only forced to arrange for tickets, but also had to spend the night outside Bangkok airport. It all happened because of the ignorance of the Jet Airways staff about sports weapons and the documents we were carrying.”
Sidhu also made it clear the pair had permission from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to carry the pistolsd and rifles. However, she was told by the Jet Airways’ official that the permission did not mention anything about “carrying back” the weapons from Busan to India.
