Video shows degrading scenes on the plane: disabled woman has to crawl on the floor to the toilet

Created: 10/01/2022 17:16

By: Nadja Zinsmeister

A wheelchair user documented her experience on an airplane.

© Screenshot Instagram @wheelie_good_life

A holiday flight turned into a humiliating experience for a wheelchair user from England: she had to crawl herself on the floor to the toilet.

New Castle - People with disabilities often have to live under difficult conditions in our society.

A video on social networks, which is currently going viral, shows how humiliating this can be for those affected.

A woman paralyzed from the waist down recounts her experience of having to crawl on the floor to the toilet on an airplane because the staff refused to help.

Flight from Newcastle to Mallorca: disabled woman has to crawl to the toilet on the plane

The video was published by the woman named Jennie Berrie herself on her Instagram blog about her everyday life with a disability.

As she tells herself, she wanted to fly from Newcastle to Mallorca on vacation.

The airline was changed at short notice so that, according to her own statement, she had to travel with the

airline .

Already at the airport, the staff of the airline told Berrie that although there were free seats, they could not switch to a seat at the front of the plane, which would have made it easier for them to board and disembark.

But the woman's ordeal didn't end when she was refused a seat swap: "The flight got worse when I wanted to go to the toilet in the air and I was just told: 'No, we don't have an aisle chair on board ' without giving me any suggestion as to what I should do,' she continues.

So Berrie made the quick decision to walk herself to the bathroom -- not easy for a woman paralyzed from the waist down.

The video shows her pulling herself backwards down the aisle on the floor.

Meanwhile, in the background, the staff is quietly serving drinks to the passengers.

Airplane staff recommend diapers to wheelchair users on flight – video goes viral

Luckily, when Berrie finally made the walk, she got help from her partner, who lifted her onto the toilet.

The staff is said to have told her that "disabled people should wear diapers on board".

For a woman who just had to crawl to the toilet, obviously not a nice statement.

"Life as a disabled person can be downright humiliating and embarrassing at times, and unfortunately this was one of those moments," she continues.

The video went viral shortly thereafter, so it was reposted over ten thousand times on TikTok and received over a million likes.

While the experience was embarrassing for Berrie, she still wanted to use it to get her message across: "There is still a long way to go when it comes to accessibility in the travel industry and I hope and pray this is an insight into why something needs to change.” While this was her first flight with such rude staff, the fact that someone had to experience something like this shows how much work still needs to be done.

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A hurricane hunter recently documented his flight to Hurricane Ian in Florida.

He described it as "the worst flight of his career".