All of us at airports see passengers in wheelchairs. The infirm, the injured, the elderly. More often than not their travails are multiplied. One of the areas that have become contentious is of giving this segment of travelers second rate status and treating them so.

As air traveler age increases the wheelchair demands ups to as high as ten percent of passengers with about six to eight per 150 passengers being normal. Tour groups for retired people can rise to nearly twenty to thirty and cause huge boarding and disembarkation problems.

Things came to a head on this issue when a video went viral earlier in the week.

An elderly couple were stranded in an Air India aircraft for 70 minutes after it came into Mumbai from Hyderabad because there are no wheelchairs. Their demand forms for assistance at disembarkation were correctly filled and the Airports Authority which is responsible for this faux pas (not Air India since the crew had to stay on board till the last passenger left) seems indifferent to their plight. The couple just kept sitting in the 37 degree sauna with the crew.

Rudeness toward passengers is not new and callous conduct does occur mostly with passengers in coach.

A passenger of Finnair AY832 from London to the airline’s hub Helsinki was left bleeding on the tarmac of the airport for 29 minutes, with a jaw bone fracture, a deep gash and four teeth broken when she slipped and fell down while de-boarding on Sept. 15, her family says.

In response, Finnair said in an e-mail that it confirms a passenger was injured as she tripped on the stairs while deboarding her flight at Helsinki airport. “We’re extremely sorry about the accident and wish the passenger in question a speedy recovery,” the airline added.

“Believe it or not! No ambulance came to the site for 29 long minutes. When it did, it took a little while for them to put her on a stretcher and examine her in the ambulance,” she said.

A US war vet says to the American Consumer Affairs bureau: “As a handicapped person (2 1/2 month in hospital due to a car accident, lost 35 percent of left arm, permanent nerve damage with foot drop on my right leg, fractured lower back) left me with a need to have a seat where I can extend my leg. At the time of our vacation had also a partial knee replacement surgery so this was a double pressure. After purchasing the tickets via phone and explained 3 times my condition and needs, and after been assured that “no problem sir I have what you need,” I purchased 4 tickets from Phoenix to Milano — that was May 8 at 7.40 p.m. going to London 9.40 minutes flight.”

“Well here is when the surprised start, my seat assignment was aisle 39. After I looked I thought it was a mistake, but the steward told me that was my seat next to the window. I was furious. The space for the legs was maybe 20/25 inches and the seat near the window forced me to have my wife and the lady next to her to constantly stand up for me. You can imagine how happy I was. Nobody helped me with a new accommodation and the return, London to Phoenix, was the same! Same aisle. I tried to e-mail BA. The response I got was that they would transfer the complaint to customer service. It was July first week.

My question is very simple: The Handicapped People are considered 3rd class people. There is any law that has some consideration for them, me? Driving, we have special assigned spaces to park, flying and paying pretty good money. We are treated like.. well you know what!!!”

One other news report says: A marine who lost both of his legs while serving in Afghanistan was “humiliated” while boarding a Delta Airlines flight, as he was clumsily pushed to the back of the plane in a wheelchair, knocking into row after row of seated passengers.

The report continues to say: “Tears streamed down the face of Marine Lance Cpl. Christian Brown when the war hero with prosthetic legs bumped into multiple passengers despite the best rebuffed efforts from several veterans on board to move Brown to first class.”

The Washington Post reports that Delta flight attendants cited that because the doors had closed for takeoff, they were unable to move the wheelchair-bound Brown to first class.

These quoted incidents underscore the prejudice or laziness toward passengers with special needs. Airlines promise to go that extra step but fail all too often to live up to that expectation.

Rudeness comes with the territory.

While it is exceptionally rare in Business and First most of it is practiced by ground staff.

Cabin crew are universally acclaimed as being a bit nicer.

Unless it comes to wheelchairs.