BBC reporter slams Polish airline, was forced to crawl to toilet due to wheelchair ban
On Tuesday (1 Oct), BBC reporter Frank Gardner took to X to criticise LOT Polish Airlines for not having onboard wheelchairs due to “airline policy”.
He was flying from Warsaw, Poland, to Heathrow, UK when he had to crawl across the floor of the plane to reach the toilet.
Gardner has been paralysed from the knees down for 20 years after being shot by al-Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia.
Following the mortifying incident, he vowed not to fly with LOT again “until they join the 21st century”.
His post has since garnered 8.7 million views and 143,000 likes.
BBC reporter calls experience “quite degrading”
In a BBC article, Gardner described the ordeal as “physically deeply uncomfortable” and “quite degrading”.
“It was humiliating to have to shuffle along the floor of an aircraft in front of other passengers in my suit,” he expressed.
Source: @FrankRGardner on X
Gardner noted that the airline said it was not its policy to carry onboard aisle chairs.
He deemed this “unacceptable for disabled passengers” since the chairs are compact, foldable, and can easily fit in a cupboard or overhead locker.
He emphasised that every other airline he had flown with recently had such chairs onboard.
Gardner argued that this “shouldn’t be difficult to fix”, demanding the policy be changed immediately.
This is 2024, not 1970, and I find it extraordinary that an airline is allowed to fly in and out of British airports with a policy that effectively says ‘if you can’t walk, you can’t go to the toilet on our planes’.
LOT Polish airline apologises for the “distressing experience”
Speaking to the BBC, LOT Polish Airlines said it was “deeply sorry” for the “distressing experience” and the “inconvenience and discomfort” caused by the lack of an onboard wheelchair.
They explained that their policy against onboard wheelchairs on short-haul flights was due to “limited space.”
However, the airline acknowledged “the importance of accessibility” and said they are actively testing solutions to equip their short-haul aircraft with onboard wheelchairs “in the near future”.
However, Gardner said the response is unacceptable, highlighting that his recent long-haul flight from Estonia to London via LOT Polish Airlines also lacked onboard wheelchairs.
He added that the airline’s ground staff were “uncompromising” and dismissed the idea of needing this facility on the plane.
Despite this, he called LOT’s cabin staff on his 1 Oct flight “fantastic”, adding that they were “embarrassed, apologetic and as helpful as they could be” regarding the situation.
“They encouraged me to complain about this as they could see how wrong it was,” Gardner wrote.
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Featured image adapted from @FrankRGardner on X
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