A 63-year-old disabled BBC journalist was forced to crawl to the bathroom because his airline prevented him from using his wheelchair on board.
Frank Gardner, who had been shot and paralyzed by al-Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia in 2004 while reporting, shared his experience on X and vowed to never fly with LOT Polish Airlines again.
Posting a photo of his legs on the floor, he wrote, “Wow. It’s 2024 and I’ve just had to crawl along the floor of this LOT Polish airline to get to the toilet during a flight back from Warsaw as ‘we don’t have onboard wheelchairs. It’s airline policy.’
“If you’re disabled and you can’t walk this is just discriminatory.”
A disabled journalist expressed his frustrations on X when his airline forced him to crawl to the bathroom due to their onboard policy
Gardner was invited on BBC Breakfast to talk about how his onboard experience was “inhumane.”
He said, “It is outrageous in terms of air travel that LOT, the Polish airline I traveled on from Warsaw last night back to London, had no onboard aisle chair.
“I said, ‘well, how do you expect me to the loo?’ ‘Well, we can help you.”
Gardner continued, “Well, not really, because if somebody drags you to the loo it’s too difficult. I had to crawl on my backside along the floor — which wasn’t particularly clean — of the aircraft.”
He later added, “But the point is, guys, it’s not difficult to have an onboard aisle chair. These things fold up to the size of a pram, if not smaller, and they fit into an overhead locker or into a cupboard.”
Despite his frustrations with the airline, the journalist was understanding towards the flight attendants in a reply to his initial tweet.
“In fairness to the cabin crew, they were as helpful and apologetic as they could be,” he wrote. “Not their fault, it’s the airline. Won’t be flying LOT again until they join the 21st century.”
The incident sparked quite an outrage on the Internet
Many people offered Gardner support on his original X post.
“Good lord, Frank, that’s horrendous. At least the crew did their best, but just astonishing that you had to crawl,” someone said.
Another commented, “Think this airline needs to be challenged on it’s disability rights accessibility programme. Extraordinary that this should be happening in 2024.”
A user wrote, “Absolutely DISGRACEFUL. So sorry, how can an airline in this day & age can treat a disabled person like that? Beggars beyond belief!”
LOT has since released a statement and issued a public apology to Gardner
The airline said, “We are deeply sorry for the distressing experience Mr Frank Gardner encountered on his recent flight with us. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and discomfort caused by the lack of an onboard wheelchair.
“Currently, onboard wheelchairs are available on our Dreamliner aircraft. However, due to limited space, our short haul fleet does not yet have this facility.”
They continued, “As mentioned on our website, for long-haul flights, we provide onboard wheelchairs to assist passengers in moving around the cabin.
“Additionally, our ground staff is always ready to assist passengers from check-in to boarding and from the aircraft to the baggage claim area.”
People on X were quick to show sympathy towards the journalist
