Specially Abled UK Journalist Forced to Crawl on Flight After Airline Fails to Provide Wheelchair

Viral News: A British journalist who lost his legs while reporting on a war attack in the Middle East in 2004 was recently forced to crawl across the cabin floor of a LOT Polish Airlines flight.

He took to Instagram to call out the discriminatory behavior.

Frank Gardner, a seasoned journalist was returning from Warsaw when he had to face the shocking situation. 

When he had to use the restroom, he was informed by the crew that the airline did not provide an onboard wheelchair facility.
With no other choice, he was forced to crawl to the restroom.

Taking to X Gardner wrote "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."

Despite the discriminatory situation, Gardener acknowledged the cabin crew tried to help the man and were "apologetic throughout".

“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.

The post has now gone viral and sparked outrage among internet users.

"Shocking - so sorry to hear this, isn’t it time airlines are obliged to provide onboard wheelchairs to be able to hold licenses to fly into international airports" a user commented.

"Think this airline needs to be challenged on its disability rights accessibility program. Extraordinary that this should be happening in 2024" another user remarked.

A third individual wrote "This was one of the reasons I stopped flying many years ago. Another was my powered wheelchair being used as a luggage trolley.  All these years later very little has changed, it’s shameful."

"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 fourth user sympathized.