A Japanese budget airline has apologised to a passenger in a wheelchair who was made to board a recent flight by crawling up a staircase using only his hands.
Hideto Kijima was preparing to return to Osaka from a trip to Amami Oshima island.
However, the return flight would be a decidedly less accommodating experience for Kijima, who lost the use of his legs in a rugby accident when he was 17.
At Amami Airport, there were only steps leading up to the plane from the tarmac – and staff for Vanilla Air Inc. told him it was against their company policy for him to be carried up the boarding ramp in his wheelchair, Kijima said.
Kijima had not encountered this problem on the way to the island because a boarding bridge had connected their gate at Kansai International Airport directly to the plane. Once they had arrived at Amami Airport, his five travel companions had helped carry him off the plane in his wheelchair.
Kijima was being told that was not an option. So he got out of his wheelchair, laid down at the bottom of the metal ramp and began crawling, step by step, up to the plane.
It took him three to four minutes to climb the 17 steps, according to the Asahi Shimbun. The airline apologised for the incident.
Vanilla Air is a low-cost carrier founded in 2011 that is owned by All Nippon Airways, Japan’s largest airline. On its website, Vanilla Air says it does offer a special chair called an “Assist Stretcher” for passengers in wheelchairs to use while boarding and deplaning at airports that lack boarding bridges. However, those passengers must fill out a form and fax it to the airline at least five business days before their departure, the website says.
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