Frank Gardner, a war correspondent for the BBC, was recently made to crawl to the lavatory on a LOT Polish flight after the airline refused to provide a wheelchair, citing it was against their policy. Gardner was on a flight from Poland to London.
On October 1, the journalist called out the airline on X with a picture of him crawling through the aircraft. “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,” he wrote.
In another post, Gardner mentioned that the cabin crew was “helpful and apologetic” and it was the airline’s fault. “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,” the journalist wrote.
Take a look at the viral post here:
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. pic.twitter.com/aFuxo89DR5
— Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) September 30, 2024
With over eight million views, the post caused a stir on the platform as several social media expressed their shock at the incident. A user wrote, “Shocking – so sorry to hear this, isn’t it time airlines are obliged to provide on board wheelchairs to be able to hold licences to fly into international airports.” Another user commented, “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.”
“That is shocking. So sorry to read this and I hope @LOTAirlinesUS make a full apology. Must contravene EU regs on discrimination for disabled people?” a third user wrote.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, Gardner recounted his experience, calling the situation outrageous.”When I asked how I was supposed to go to the washroom, the crew said they would help me. But dragging someone to the loo is not feasible. I had to crawl on my backside along the floor — which wasn’t particularly clean — of the aircraft,” he said.