Natalie Curtis from Queensland (Australia) was looking forward to her vacation in Thailand. But when she arrived in Bangkok, she had to crawl out of the plane, the broadcaster 7News reports. The airline Jetstar had refused her a wheelchair. At first it seemed like a nice trip. Everything went according to plan. To get through the narrow aisle in the plane, an extra wheelchair is provided by the airlines.
After landing in the Thai capital, Curtis wanted to use such a wheelchair again to get off the plane. But this time there was a problem. Suddenly she had to pay for the special seat. “When we arrived, I was asked to pay,” Curtis told the Australian TV channel.
She took that as brutality. She could not use her own wheelchair because it is too wide for the narrow aisle of the plane. Now that nothing happened, the Australian saw no other option. Because she didn’t want to pay to get off the plane. So “I lay down on the floor and started crawling.” She had to travel four meters before she could leave the plane.
“Our sincere apologies”
Curtis’ colleague Natasha Elford, who was traveling with her, filmed her friend crawling down the aisle. “I really felt sorry for Natalie. I felt powerless and couldn’t believe this was really happening. The staff offered to carry her, but if they had dropped Natalie it would have been ten times worse.”
After the incident, the airline spoke out and explained that there had been a misunderstanding. So it just took longer before the wheelchair was available. Under no circumstances did the Australian have to pay for the wheelchair. “Our sincere apologies,” the airline said. Curtis was offered a refund for the flight.
However, the Australian no longer wants to fly with Jetstar. “It was extremely humiliating, and I definitely don’t want anyone else to go through this.” (lrc)