GOOD Morning Britain viewers slammed an airline for its ‘disgraceful’ statement after a disabled passenger was forced to drag herself to the toilet on one of its flights.
Jennie Berry, from Hartlepool, is paralysed from the waist down and was filmed by her boyfriend shuffling down the aisle of the AlbaStar Airlines flight on her bum.
Jennie Berry was forced to drag herself to the toilet on an AlbaStar Airlines flight
Her boyfriend filmed her dragging herself along the floor
The airline didn’t provide Jennie with a specially designed aisle chair that would have allowed her to make her way to the toilet with dignity.
In a post on her social media, Jennie claimed staff on the flight told her that disabled people should wear nappies.
The privately-owned Spanish airline issued a statement to Good Morning Britain today.
It read: “Our CEO called Ms Berry to personally apologise and explained on our and many short haul aircraft in Europe the proper storage of these aisle chairs is a key safety issue in the event of an emergency. Hardly any short haul aircraft in Europe carry these aisle chairs, including some very well-known UK airlines.
“As it is against regulations for cabin crew to lift passengers in flight, the key point here is to ask why her partner did not help her get to the toilet rather than spend his time filming.”
Meanwhile TUI, who outsourced the flight to AlbaStar, said they were not made aware of Jennie’s needs and if they had been they would have provided an aisle chair, insisting their planes are equipped with them.
Jennie said of AlbaStar’s response: “It’s astounding that the response that was given here rather than proving access.”
Host Ben Shephard was also stunned as were viewers.
One posted on Twitter: “Wonder how many potential customers @TUIUK and albastar have just lost at their inability to treat disabled people with dignity ….. Disgusting #gmb.”
Another said: “Poor girl, as a disabled person myself this is just further proof that we are still being treated like second class citizens. Telling her to wear a nappy is f****g disgusting!!! We are human beings for christ sake!!!”
A third wrote: “Another day another disabled person having to humiliate themselves and have any shred of dignity stolen from them. This time a girl that had to drag herself along the floor of a plane to get to the toilet.”
Jennie shared a video of her plight on social media and it soon went viral.
Explaining what happened, she said: “As you all know – when you’ve gotta go, you’ve gotta go – so thankfully as I have good upper body strength I proceeded to drag myself down the aisle towards the toilet, while staff continued to serve drinks.
“Staff told me that ‘disabled people should wear nappies [diapers] on board’ Apparently that’s their solution – to ask disabled passengers to pee in their seats,” she said.
“Staff were huffing and puffing while I held up their all-important drinks cart and told me that ‘in 27 years of working on airlines, they never saw the issue of disabled people having to wear nappies [diapers] before.’”
Jennie wasn’t impressed by the airline’s response
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