Disabled girl, 12, forced out of electric wheelchair by Jetstar staff
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A young girl was forced out of her electrical wheelchair by airline staff while travelling with her mother from Sydney to Launceston recently.
Her mother, Heike Fabig, has shared a heartbreaking photo of the moment it happened, as well as an open letter she wrote to to Jetstar CEO Gareth Evans.
When the incident occurred, her daughter Billie, 12, sobbed “they literally just took my legs away”.
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“We are regular travellers with Billie, so we have a fair bit of experience flying with an electric wheelchair,” Heike explained in her letter.
“We have all the necessary paperwork (such as Dangerous Goods declaration and details of the chair and battery type) ready, and always arrive two hours before departure, allowing more check-in time than the recommended minimum 90 minutes for domestic flights.”
However, when she and her daughter arrived at the gate on this occasion, they were told could not drive her chair to the door of the aircraft as there was no lift near the gate.
As a result, Billie was strapped into a manual wheelchair, which had been modified for use on the aeroplane.
Her mother says what happened was a contravention of the Disability Discrimination Act.
“Billie cannot safely sit in these aisle chairs, and had to be strapped up in order to not fall out,” she wrote.
“We have all the necessary paperwork (such as Dangerous Goods declaration and details of the chair and battery type) ready, and always arrive two hours before departure, allowing more check-in time than the recommended minimum 90 minutes for domestic flights.”
But on this occasion, she said she and her daughter were told Billie could not drive her chair to the door of the aircraft as there was no lift near the gate.
As a result, Billie was strapped into a manual wheelchair, which had been modified for use on the aeroplane.
Her mother believes what happened was a contravention of the Disability Discrimination Act.
“Billie cannot safely sit in these aisle chairs, and had to be strapped up in order to not fall out,” Heike wrote.
“Keeping in mind that we had arrived super early as a courtesy to your staff to allow a smooth check-in, this meant that Billie was in essence strapped into a chair for about two hours, as if in some type of straightjacket.
“She was absolutely distraught and petrified the entire time.
“In between her sobbing she said ‘they literally just took my legs away’ and she requested that we take a photograph so that ‘people can see what it’s like, because they don’t understand’.”
A spokesperson for Jetstar told the Daily Mail that they are looking into the incident to try and understand what happened.
Nicola Conville has worked as a journalist and editor for more than 20 years across a wide range of print and online publications. Her areas of expertise are parenting, health and travel. She has two children; Lucy, age eight, and Nathan, age five.
