No wheelchair allowed

Airplane scandal: Reporter crawls to the lavatory!

In his post on Platform X (below), you can see how the reporter had to crawl on the plane on his way to the toilet.

(Bild: APA/BARBARA GINDL)

This story can hardly be surpassed in terms of tastelessness. When a BBC war correspondent had to go to the toilet on a Polish LOT airline plane, he was forced to crawl on the floor to get into the cabin. This is because wheelchairs are not allowed on board. 

It is a humiliating picture that is presented on an X-Post by BBC journalist Frank Gardner. As the war reporter reports, he was apparently only able to reach the aircraft toilet by crawling to the toilet cubicle on the ground.

Airline policy prohibits wheelchairs on board
The way Gardner describes the situation in his post on Monday makes you shudder: "Wow! It's 2024 and I just had to crawl along the floor of Polish airline LOT to get to the toilet during a return flight from Warsaw ...".

The respected journalist was shot by al-Qaeda terrorists in Saudi Arabia 20 years ago and has been paralyzed ever since, which is why he relies on a wheelchair. 

"Simply discriminatory"
According to the report, the journalist was on his flight home to London when the flight crew refused to allow him to take his wheelchair with him, as these are not permitted under the regulations. This is not only discrimination in the highest form, but also extremely humiliating for people with a disability. "If you're disabled and you can't walk, that's just discriminatory," Gardner says.

The X-Post above shows his legs lying on the aisle of the plane. However, he doesn't blame the flight crew because "it's down to airline regulations", which don't deem it necessary to keep wheelchairs on board. He also criticized the fact that "it would not be difficult to carry a wheelchair on board". 

Afterwards, Gardner also commented on the wheelchair incident on the TV program "BBC Breakfast". In another X-Post, he emphasized: "To be fair, the cabin crew were as helpful and apologetic as they could be. It's not their fault, it's the airline. I won't fly with LOT again until they arrive in the 21st century," the reporter said.