Japanese carrier Vanilla Air forces wheelchair-bound man to crawl onto plane
Vanilla Air did not have a lift at the small airport to move disabled passengers from the tarmac up to the jet’s door
A Japanese budget airline apologised Wednesday for forcing a wheelchair-bound man to crawl up a set of stairs to board his flight.
Hideto Kijima, 44, was returning earlier this month to Osaka from a vacation in Amami, a small island off southern Japan, when an Vanilla Air employee told him that company safety rules banned anyone from carrying him up the stairs.
Kijima, who is paralysed in the lower body due to a spinal cord injury suffered while playing rugby in high school, runs the Japan Accessible Tourism Centre.
The carrier, the budget arm of All Nippon Airways, did not have a lift at the small airport to move disabled passengers from the tarmac up to the jet’s door.
The airport worker, who was on an outsourcing contract with Vanilla, stopped Kijima’s friends from carrying him up the stairs, citing Vanilla regulations.
The worker allegedly told Kijima he could board the plane if he “can climb up the stairs on his own with the assistance” of people travelling with him.