Disabled war journo crawls to airplane toilet as Polish airline bans wheelchair

A disabled BBC war correspondent recently shared an ordeal he underwent during a flight to London. He shared on X on Monday that he had to crawl to the bathroom because the airline bans wheelchairs.

Frank Gardner, 63, said the incident happened on a Polish airline where he had to "crawl along the floor" to reach the toilet. “Wow. It’s 2024 and I’ve just had to crawl along the floor of this LOT Polish airline to get to the toilet during a flight back from Warsaw as ‘we don’t have onboard wheelchairs. It’s airline policy,’” Gardner said.

“If you’re disabled and you can’t walk this is just discriminatory,” the veteran journo said. Gardner became paralysed after being shot by al Qaeda gunmen ​​in Saudi Arabia 20 years ago.

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He also posted a photo of his legs on the floor of the plane.

Gardner said he wouldn't be travelling with this particular airline again unless they changed their policy. He further praised the crew for helping him get through it.

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“In fairness to the cabin crew, they were as helpful and apologetic as they could be. Not their fault, it’s the airline. Won’t be flying LOT again until they join the 21st century,” Gardner wrote in another post.

Talking about the incident on "BBC Breakfast" the next day, Gardner said, "The Polish airline I travelled on from Warsaw last night back to London, had no onboard aisle chair."

“I said, ‘Well, how do you expect me to go to the loo?'", he asked.

“Well, not really, because if somebody drags you to the loo it’s too difficult. I had to crawl on my backside along the floor — which wasn’t particularly clean — of the aircraft,” he said.

Talking about the cabin crew on the show, Gardner said that they were "embarrassed" and "as helpful as they could".

He hopes the airline will introduce onboard aisle chairs soon.