Disabled woman forced to drag herself to loo on plane slams airline for blaming husband
A disabled woman condemned an airline for their response after being forced to drag herself to the toilet.
Jennie Berry went viral on Twitter after being filmed dragging herself down the aisle of the plane to the toilet as no aisle chair was available.
Jennie, who is paralysed from the waist down, claimed that one of the air stewardesses suggested that she should have worn a nappy onboard the flight from Newcastle Airport to Palma in Majorca.
READ MORE:Plane crashes as passengers warn surfer about 20ft shark and dolphins push him to shore
AlbaStar released a statement following the incident and said that the company’s CEO had called Jennie to “personally apologise”.
“Hardly any short haul aircraft in Europe carry these aisle chairs, including some very well-known UK airlines,” the spokesperson claimed.
(Image: ITV)
In a stunning turn of events, the airline decided to take aim at Jennie’s husband and questioned why he filmed the incident rather than helping her.
The spokesperson added: “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 spending his time filming.”
Speaking on Good Morning Britain today (Friday, October 7), Jennie said the CEO failed to show her empathy for what happened.
“Apart from saying how devastated they were as a company, as opposed to how I felt, I think devastated because of the reaction,” she said.
“Their current policy is that my partner should’ve dragged me from behind with my feet trailing or carried me – never mind I’m six foot tall, I can’t be carried in that narrow gap.”
Jennie said the sheer size of the aircraft meant the airline could have carried an aisle chair.
(Image: WheelieGoodLife/Twitter)
To stay up to date with all the latest news, make sure you sign up to one of our newsletters here.
She said: “It’s a Boeing 737, which most airlines also use. And most airlines – including low cost, low budget airlines such as TUI, EasyJet, Ryanair – all of these have the aisle chair on board and they make the space for it to be there.”
During the flight Jennie said one of the air stewardesses suggested she should have worn a nappy, infuriating Jennie.
She added: “I don’t need to wear a nappy and to just have that kind of response as opposed to – you know, I wasn’t asking anyone to carry me, I don’t expect to be carried. I know that that isn’t in their remit to do so.
“I was just expecting a bit of empathy, help clearing the aisle and just problem solving in a scenario where we’re in the middle of the air, there’s no aisle chair onboard, what do we do know?
(Image: WheelieGoodLife/Twitter)
Jennie further expressed her thoughts on the ordeal as she took to Instagram.
She wrote: “Life as a disabled person can sometimes be downright degrading and embarrassing, and unfortunately, this was one of them times.
“To be outright told to my face that I should wear a nappy when I don’t need to and that they are happy with that policy made me feel humiliated.”
READ NEXT: