When Narmaya Khati, 74, boarded a flight in Kathmandu to meet her family living in Cairns, she never would have imagined the ordeal that was soon to unravel.
Upon landing at Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport on 31 May, the grandmother was found confused and crying by a good samaritan, Hari Aryal.
Highlights
- Narmaya Khati, 74, from Nepal, was found crying at the arrival lounge at Melbourne Airport on Tuesday morning by Hari Aryal.
- Ms Khati was a special care passenger requiring assistance but was left to care for herself upon arrival in Australia.
- The airport says airlines are responsible for handling passengers sent under special care or requiring a wheelchair.
Mr Aryal told SBS Nepali that when he arrived at the Airport around 8:30 am local time to pick up his relatives; he saw a senior woman draped in Nepali-style clothing in the arrival lounge.
“I had gone to the airport to pick up my family, and I saw an old woman crying,” Mr Aryal said.
“I asked her about what happened, and she told me, ‘my daughter did not come to pick me up'.”
International passengers arrive at Melbourne Airport in Melbourne. Source: AAP
Lost in translation
According to the Melbournian, Ms Khati had no documents with her relatives’ contact details, and a small mobile handset she was carrying with her had also died.
He says because of the make and the model of the phone, it was not possible to recharge its battery.
Determined to help, Mr Aryal turned to social media and posted a photo of Ms Khati with documentation showing her family’s names and addresses in Nepal on Facebook.
Within minutes, the post had gone viral.
When SBS Nepali contacted Mr Aryal initially, he was still waiting to hear from Ms Khati’s family.
Screenshot of the Facebook post urging community members to help locate Narmaya Khati's relatives. Source: Facebook
Meanwhile, Mr Aryal arranged for the lost grandmother to board a later flight to Queensland’s capital Brisbane and then to the regional centre of Cairns.
Earlier, Ms Khati had boarded a Malaysia Airlines flight MH 171 from Nepal’s Tribhuvan International Airport to Cairns via Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne.
Her daughter, Mina Kumari Khati, unaware of all the trouble in Melbourne, waited eagerly at Cairns Airport around 1 pm local time on Tuesday afternoon to pick her mother up.
“The travel itinerary mentioned that she [Narmaya Khati] would arrive in Cairns at 13:05 [local time], so I went there to pick her up,” Mina Kumari Khati told SBS Nepali.
Meanwhile, back in Melbourne, Mr Aryal had talked to the airport helpdesk and arranged a Qantas flight that would take Ms Khati to Cairns at 5:30 pm via Brisbane.
Then around midday, the business professional posted about the incident on a Nepali Facebook group, requesting help and mentioning his mobile number.
“I told the airport staff, ‘put her in a wheelchair, and do not leave her alone until her relatives arrive, and until there is someone who speaks the Nepali language’,” Mr Aryal told SBS Nepali.
Among the many people who had seen and commented on the post, Queenslander Dhirendra Raj Thapa reached out to Mr Aryal, who used one of his contacts in Cairns, Bhadra Gurung, and asked him to find out about Ms Khati’s relatives.
“I contacted a friend from the local Bhutani refugee community, and he informed me that her [Ms Khati’s] relatives had gone to the airport to pick her up,” Mr Gurung told SBS Nepali.
Ms Khati’s eldest daughter, Mina Kumari, is married to a Bhutani refugee.
Details of the flight from Melbourne to Cairns. Source: Facebook
Lesson learnt
Mina Kumari Khati said that she had not thought of sending her contact number or address on a piece of paper with her mother when she departed from Nepal.
“It was my first time [inviting my mother to Australia], you know. You don’t know about it until it happens to you,” she said.
“Anyway, everyone helped; my fellow Nepalis helped – I would like to thank them very, very much.”
Narmaya Khati’s relatives confirmed that she reached her family safely on Tuesday evening.
Although Ms Khati was designated as a wheelchair assisted traveller (special care category), it is unclear why she was left unattended once she reached Melbourne Airport.
Questions asked
In trying to understand the lapse in care of the vulnerable traveller, SBS Nepali reached out to Melbourne Airport.
Its spokesperson said, “Melbourne Airport staff were not made aware of this particular situation.”
She said airlines are responsible for handling passengers sent under special care or requiring a wheelchair.
“This is a service that passengers need to arrange directly with the airline,” the spokesperson said.
Qantas said it took care of the passenger on the last leg of her journey, and anything before that point remained the responsibility of her carrier.
Malaysia Airlines said it is investigating the incident upon being flagged by SBS Nepali.
