A North East wheelchair user has told of a "degrading and embarrassing" ordeal in which she was forced to drag herself along the ground to go to the toilet on a plane .
Jennie Berry appeared on Good Morning Britain to tell her story in a bid to raise awareness of the changes that need to be made when it comes to making flights more accessible for disabled passengers. Jennie, from Hartlepool, explained that she was on a flight from Newcastle Airport to Palma when the ordeal took place, BirminghamLive reports .
Jennie posted a video on her TikTok page @wheelie_good_life filmed by her partner of the incident unfolding last month, which showed staff continuing to serve drinks to other passengers as she proceeded to drag herself along the aisle. The clip went viral on the social media platform, with followers branding the event "unacceptable" and "disgraceful".
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Recounting the ordeal, Jennie told hosts Kate Garraway and Ben Shephard: "I pressed the call bell above my head - they didn't come, they were just serving drinks. My partner had to go and speak with them and say, you know, 'can my partner go to the toilet? Can we get the aisle chair?' And he was just told 'no'.
"They just didn't have one onboard," she explained. "And at no point did anyone come and speak to me about the scenario, it was just passed through to my partner, who then had to come and tell me."
Jennie added that members of staff on board the plane continued to serve drinks, despite her partner requesting that they stop so that she could go to the toilet. She then had to resort to dragging herself down the aisle in order to get to the bathroom, and says that she was told by staff that she "should wear a nappy" on board in the future.
The blogger is now campaigning to improve disability access on planes after her "humiliating" experience. "There is a lot that still needs to be done when it comes to accessibility within the travel industry and I just hope and pray that this is an insight as to why there needs to be change - not only to access, but attitudes too," she wrote on TikTok.
A spokesperson for Spanish airline company Albastar said: "Albastar would like to express its sincere apologies for the event that recently took place on one of our flights in relation to the flight experience of a passenger with reduced mobility. Our main concern is the safety and comfort of all our passengers on each and every flight we operate.
"We are working to investigate the incident to ensure that this isolated incident does not happen again on any of our aircrafts."
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