BBC journalist crawls to toilet mid-flight after airline denies wheelchair access
A BBC journalist was left dishonored after being forced to crawl to the toilet during a LOT Polish Airlines flight from Poland to London, as the airline refused to provide an onboard wheelchair. Frank Gardner, BBC's security correspondent, shared his experience on X (formerly Twitter), calling out the airline's policy, which he described as discriminatory against disabled passengers.
Gardner, who has been paralyzed for over 20 years following a shooting by Al-Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia, expressed his frustration in a post. "Wow. It’s 2024 and I’ve just had to crawl along the floor of this LOT Polish airline to get to the toilet... as ‘we don’t have onboard wheelchairs. It’s airline policy.’ If you’re disabled and can’t walk, this is just discriminatory," he wrote, alongside a photo of himself sitting on the plane’s floor.
In a detailed account on the BBC, Gardner explained that the ordeal was both physically uncomfortable and degrading. "It was humiliating to shuffle along the floor of an aircraft in front of other passengers in my suit," he said, adding that LOT Polish Airlines informed him it was not their policy to provide onboard aisle chairs. He criticized the airline for not accommodating disabled passengers, pointing out that such devices are compact and can easily be stored on planes.
Gardner mentioned that he had never faced a similar issue with any other airline and found it astonishing that in 2024, an airline could operate in and out of British airports with a policy that essentially implied disabled passengers unable to walk were not allowed to use the toilet during the flight.
Although Gardner was critical of the airline, he defended the cabin crew, stating that they were as helpful and apologetic as possible. He acknowledged that the situation was not their fault but a result of the airline’s policy, and mentioned that he would refrain from flying with LOT Polish Airlines until they "join the 21st century."
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Man held for murdering elder brother in Latur
Latur (PTI): A man was arrested in Latur for allegedly murdering his elder brother, a police official said on Sunday.
The body of Gulab Vilas Kharose (34) was found on the bund of a field in Nilanga tehsil on February 18, following which a murder case was registered as it bore strangulation marks, the Kasarsirsi police station official said.
The probe zeroed in on the victim's younger brother Ulhas Kharose (32), he added.
"The two brothers had frequent quarrels over land and family matters. Ulhas attacked and killed his elder brother on the evening of February 17. Ulhas has been remanded in police custody till February 24," the official said.
