Paralysed BBC journalist made to crawl to toilet on London flight, shares ordeal

A BBC journalist was made to crawl to the toilet on a flight after the airline refused to provide a wheelchair for him as it was against their policy.
In a post on X, Frank Gardener, BBC’s security correspondent, said that he was not provided a wheelchair to move around on a flight from Poland to London.
“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, sharing an photo of him sitting on the plane’s floor. ( Also read: Woman thrown off Air India Bengaluru flight, X user claims she abused crew)
Gardener has been paralysed for over 20 years after he was shot by al-Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia while on an assignment.
Sharing his ordeal in a lengthy post on BBC, the journalist said the whole episode was both physically deeply uncomfortable and degrading.
“It was humiliating to have to shuffle along the floor of an aircraft in front of other passengers in my suit,” he said,
He said that Polish Airlines LOT told him that it was not its policy to have onboard aisle chairs. “This is unacceptable for disabled passengers, since these devices are smaller than a pram, and can easily fold up to fit into a cupboard or an overhead locker,” he said.
The veteran journalist and author said he has never faced a similar situation on another airline’s flight.
“This is 2024, not 1970, and I find it extraordinary that an airline is allowed to fly in and out of British airports with a policy that effectively says ‘if you can’t walk, you can’t go to the toilet on our planes,” he said.
However, Gardener defended the cabin crew, saying that they were only following the policy. “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 said. (Also read: ‘Boarding chalu karao’: Angry Indigo passengers scream at staff in viral video)