An Australian woman who is crippled claimed that having to crawl off a plane because the staff wouldn’t allow her use a wheelchair for free was the “most embarrassing experience” she had ever experienced.
According to 7NEWS, the incident happened last week while Queenslander Natalie Curtis was travelling on a Jetstar flight from Townsville to Bangkok with a stopover in Singapore.
She said on the channel’s morning programme, “Sunrise,” that she was given a regular aisle wheelchair to board in Singapore but was informed upon arrival in Thailand that she would have to pay for the usage of an additional chair in order to exit the vehicle.
Curtis declined, stating that she had never been asked to pay before and had no choice but to crawl down the aisle to acquire what she needed.
She recognised that the incident might have happened as a result of a linguistic barrier between her and the workers.
“When we arrived (staff) were asking us to actually pay and I didn’t really comprehend it, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not paying to be able to get off this plane,’” she told “Sunrise.”
“They all just sat around for a while and the option that was left was for me to get on the floor and crawl,” Curtis added.
Travel companion Natasha Elford, who recorded her friend crawling down the aisle, said she wanted to carry the woman herself but could not due to a knee injury.
“I just felt really sorry for Natalie … I just felt really hopeless and I’m like, ‘I just can’t believe this is really happening,’” Elford told the news outlet.
According to the article, Curtis carried her own wheelchair on the aircraft, but it was too large to fit in the cabin.
“(Staff) did obviously try to offer to lift her up and carry her, but if they dropped her (Curtis) that would (have been) 10 times worse,” Elford said.
A Jetstar rep denied that the airline had requested payment for the use of a chair.
“We unreservedly apologize to Ms. Curtis for her recent experience while traveling with us,” the spokesperson told 7NEWS.
“We are committed to providing a safe and comfortable travel experience for all our customers, including those requiring specific assistance,” the rep said.
“Regrettably, this was not the case for Ms. Curtis following a miscommunication that resulted in the delay of an aisle chair being made available at the gate on arrival and we are looking into what happened as a matter of urgency,” the spokesperson added.
Jetstar said it offered Curtis a refund and other compensation, but she vowed to never fly with the company again — writing on Facebook that it was “definitely the most humiliating experience I have had traveling.”
She told 7NEWS: “I definitely don’t want anyone else to go through what I had to go through.”
