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Home » Safety » Disabled Woman Humiliated After Pilot Blames Her Wheelchair For Delay
Safety

Disabled Woman Humiliated After Pilot Blames Her Wheelchair For Delay

Matthew Klint Posted onAugust 15, 2022November 13, 2023 13 Comments

a blue chair with a plane painted on it

A disabled woman claims she was humiliated by a Jet2 pilot, who blamed her wheelchair for a flight delay and also by flight attendants, who warned her that they would not help in case of an emergency.

Jet2 Pilot Blames Wheelchair For Delay, Then Crew Further Humiliate Disabled Passenger

The incident occurred in July 2022 on a Jet2 flight from Bristol (BRS) to Tenerife (TFN) on the Canary Islands.

Freeman has no legs. She alerted Jet2 in advance that she required additional assistance. Upon arriving at Bristol Airport, ground staff told her that her wheelchair would have to be partially dismantled to fit on the aircraft.

Dismantling it took time and loading it carefully took the time. That apparently annoyed the captain, who announced over the PA system several times that the flight was delayed due to a wheelchair.

Shockingly, Geraldine Freeman alleges that a crew member also warned her, “In the event of an emergency, they wouldn’t be coming back for me.”

Freeman found the incident “embarrassing, uncomfortable, stressful and humiliating” and lamented to the BBC how she was treated in a “very undignified way.”

“I just didn’t want to hear it, it’s as if my life isn’t as valuable as anybody else.”

She has every right to be upset. Jet2 apologized and said it is working to better train staff. It added that “our special assistance team should have more accurately noted the dimensions of the wheelchair when they spoke to Ms Freeman initially. This would also have prevented any such delay. We are ensuring that additional training takes place to ensure that this does not happen again.”

Sir Robert Buckland, Freeman’s Member of Parliament, has taken up her cause and is pushing the Ministry of Transport to offer better safeguards for disabled passenger access, including guaranteed pre-boarding for those with disabilities in part to preserve their dignity as they settle into their seats, sometime with great struggle.

CONCLUSION

I understand the difficulty of accommodating passenger with disabilities…we’ve discussed this issue before. However, I think in a society in which we espouse equal dignity for every person, regardless of their physical independence, we must find ways to accommodate passengers like Freeman. I understand that helping her in an emergency may prove very hard, but it is not enough to warn her she is on her own. That’s not the function of a flight attendant nor is that an acceptable compromise in a civilized society.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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13 Comments

  1. RetiredATLATC Reply
    August 15, 2022 at 2:50 pm

    If true, the Jet2 pilot & FA should be embarrassed to say the least.

    The world has become, sadly, callous & unsympathetic all-in-all.

  2. Boraxo Reply
    August 15, 2022 at 2:51 pm

    A friend of mine had a serious stroke. He said the worst part was being helpless and unable to do anything or even call for help when subjected to physical abuse. It is psychologically devastating.

    Those FAs should be terminated.

  3. Debit Reply
    August 15, 2022 at 3:25 pm

    “it’s as if my life isn’t as valuable as anybody else.”

    It is not. Under capitalism your life, more importantly your skills have value. Those skills allow you to earn money, and then save and grow that money. If you don’t have those skills your life is not valuable. Neither Democrats or republicans care about your life, even if they actually say it. Democrats will pretend to care but it’s a quid pro quo allowing politicians to skim money from humantarian programs in return for funding such programs.

  4. Joe Chivas Reply
    August 15, 2022 at 3:39 pm

    Fly With Dignity

  5. Santastico Reply
    August 15, 2022 at 4:49 pm

    Totally wrong but I wonder if a budget airline like Jet2 would punish the pilot for a delayed flight. My question is if the airline would put the blame on the pilot so he was just venting his frustration. Nothing justifies it but budget airlines are the worst.

    • PM Reply
      August 15, 2022 at 5:20 pm

      I had a job interview with Jet2 a few years ago (back-office role at their Leeds HQ, did pretty well but narrowly missed out on the job), they came across as a very serious operation and you could tell they took pride in running their own resorts and employing staff in places like Turkey. Such an approach would be totally out of character for them.

      • Santastico Reply
        August 15, 2022 at 7:07 pm

        @PM: Good to know.

  6. Aaron Reply
    August 16, 2022 at 1:56 am

    “would have to be partially dismantled to fit on the aircraft.”

    What type of aircraft was it?

  7. Tee Jay Reply
    August 16, 2022 at 9:35 am

    I thought passengers who are physically incapable of assisting themselves require a capable person to accompany them. (?)

    • Greg Reply
      August 16, 2022 at 2:45 pm

      No. In the US, crewmembers are expected to assist them.

  8. Jamieo Reply
    August 16, 2022 at 11:20 am

    On the other hand, the pilot could merely have been providing accurate information as to the cause of the delay with no malice toward the passenger. If I was on the plane I might have felt less angry about the delay if I knew the reason. What’s the pilot supposed to say: we are delayed but I can’t tell you why? Hardly reassuring.

  9. Greg Reply
    August 16, 2022 at 2:50 pm

    >However, I think in a society in which we espouse equal dignity for every person, regardless of their physical independence, we must find ways to accommodate passengers like Freeman.

    Please. Nobody actually believes that.

    Passengers violently rebelled against wearing requirements to wear masks on aircraft to help protect those around them, including/especially the immunocompromised from life-threatening COVID.

    I may be misremembering (and apologies if I am), but I thought you were a relatively early proponent of discontinuing mask mandates on board aircraft.

    This is no different.

    The selfishness of a substantial (majority?) of the traveling public knows no bounds.

  10. WWguy Reply
    August 19, 2022 at 8:09 am

    This makes for terrible reading. However it would appear the FAs were complying with EASA rules.

    .
    FAs are trained and drilled to evacuate a wide bodied aircraft in under 90 seconds using only half the available exits. They are also instructed that during an evacuation, they are not to reenter the aircraft cabin if it was to put their own life at risk. So for example, if you’ve stopped to grab your bag and become incapacitated by fumes, the FAs won’t come to drag you out. The same would apply for those passengers, like the lady in the article who cannot make their way to the exits.
    Two final things to note, firstly, the FAs in this instance should not have shared this information with the customer. Secondly, who know what the FAs would do on the day. Follow their training, or die trying to help.
    The rule regarding not re entering the cabin, this came from the enquiry post the 1985 British Airtours disaster at MAN. FAs died because they re entered a burning cabin full of toxic smoke.

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