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A differently abled British journalist faced an embarrassing situation after he was forced to crawl across the flight cabin on LOT Polish Airlines due to the lack of wheelchair facilities onboard. The man was on a returning flight from Poland’s Warsaw. The UK-based journalist, Frank Gardner, took to X and shared the incident mentioning that it all happened when he needed to use the toilet during the flight, only to be informed by the crew that the airline does not provide onboard wheelchairs. The policy left him with no choice but to crawl.

“Wow. It’s 2024 and I’ve just had to crawl along the floor of this LOT Polish airline to get to the toilet during a flight back from Warsaw as ‘we don’t have onboard wheelchairs. It’s airline policy. If you’re disabled and you can’t walk this is just discriminatory,” Gardner said.

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‘Not Cabin Crew’s Fault’

Gardener was quick to clarify that it was not the cabin crew’s fault but the airline’s. He added that the cabin crew did their best under the circumstances.

“In fairness to the cabin crew, they were as helpful and apologetic as they could be. Not their fault, it’s the airline. Won’t be flying LOT again until they join the 21st century,” he added.

Gardner, who lost the use of his legs after an attack during wartime reporting in the Middle East, has reported from the world’s most dangerous regions in the past. In 2004, while covering a story in Saudi Arabia, Gardner was attacked by Al-Qaeda militants, leaving him partially paralysed.

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Netizens React

Social media users apologised to Gardner on behalf of the airlines. “Shocking – so sorry to hear this, isn’t it time airlines are obliged to provide onboard wheelchairs to be able to hold licences to fly into international airports,” a user said.

“Sorry, Frank. This is pretty tough on anyone and degrading. Thank you for your many years of great Middle East commentary and analysis. I have always appreciated your work and admire your stoicism," a suser wrote.

“Would it be so hard to make a wheelchair that runs along the same gunnels that the trolleys do, and can lock in place if necessary so that wheelchair users can get to and from their seats? Pretty sure they would only need one per aircraft,” the third user wrote.

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