Japan: Airline feels sorry for forcing man in wheelchair to drag himself up 17 steps to board plane

A budget Japanese airline has apologised after a man in a wheelchair was forced to drag himself up 17 steps to board a plane.

Hideto Kijima, 44, had been able to board an outbound flight with Vanilla Air thanks to the help of friends.

But after holidaying in Amami, a small island off the south coast of Japan, staff said company rules barred them from physically carrying him, and that if he could not get on board himself he wouldn’t be allowed to fly.

There were no other facilities to help disabled passengers get from the tarmac to the plane door.

Mr Kijima, who is paralysed from the waist down, was forced to get out of his wheelchair and physically drag himself up the steps with his arms.

Vanilla Air, which is the budget arm of All Nippon Airways, apologised for what happened.

A spokesman told AFP: “We’re sorry that we caused him that hardship.”

The airline will now make it compulsory to have arrangements for disabled passengers at all airports they use.

Mr Kijima is a frequent traveller and heads a non-profit watchdog for disabled passengers in Japan

In a blog post, he said although he’d had difficulties in boarding planes in some airports before, he’d never been told he could not board.

He told Nippon TV he was “surprised” by the staff’s attitude.

“I wondered if the airport employees didn’t think that was wrong,” he added.

The incident comes amid increasing scrutiny of how passengers are treated by airlines.

MirrorOnline reported in April how Dr David Dao was dragged from his seat in a plane ready for take off at Chicago Airport after United Airlines overbooked – in footage which went viral and shocked the world.

United Airlines was roundly criticised for not only its handling of the incident at the time but how it responded in the immediate aftermath – which is now viewed as one of the greatest PR disasters of modern times.

SOURCE: eagle Headline

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