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Australian airline Jetstar was slammed online after a passenger named Natalie Curtis was forced to crawl off her flight because the staff could not provide her with a wheelchair.
As per 7NEWS, Curtis, a native of Queensland, was traveling last week from Townsville to Bangkok with a layover in Singapore when the unfortunate incident occurred.
The outlet reported that Natalie Curtis was escorted by a standard aisle wheelchair in Singapore but was informed that she would have to pay a certain amount after arriving in Thailand to take another chair to deboard the plane.
The disabled woman refused to pay as she stated that she had never been asked to do so before and had no other option but to crawl off the plane when it landed at its final destination.
After the news went viral, several users slammed the airline on Twitter. One user wrote:
"A Jetstar passenger with a disability says she was humiliated after having to crawl off the airplane in order to get to her wheelchair. Wow, they put money first above."
Another user wrote:
"Jetstar passenger crawls off plane after flight attendants demanded she pay for wheelchair. That is insane & cruel."
A third user tweeted:
"Why are you charging for a wheelchair? @Jetstar you are despicable, greedy and insensitive! I hope people vote with their wallets and you get no business!"
Natalie Curtis admitted language barrier may have led to the incident
Natalie Curtis and her companion friend Natasha Elford appeared on 7NEWS' breakfast show, Sunrise, and detailed the incident involving the wheelchair.
“When we arrived (staff) were asking us to actually pay and I didn’t really comprehend it, and I’m like, ‘No, I’m not paying to be able to get off this plane. They all just sat around for a while and the option that was left was for me to get on the floor and crawl.”
Meanwhile, Elford recorded the incident and added that she could not help her friend because of a knee injury. She told the outlet:
"I just felt really sorry for Natalie … I just felt really hopeless and I’m like, ‘I just can’t believe this is really happening.’”
The outlet also reported that a wheelchair was present at the airport when the plane landed in Bangkok but was unavailable for 40 minutes after their arrival.
After Jetstar received backlash over their treatment of Natalie Curtis, they issued a statement apologizing to her.
“We unreservedly apologize to Ms. Curtis for her recent experience while traveling with us. We are committed to providing a safe and comfortable travel experience for all our customers, including those requiring specific assistance.”
The spokesperson added that the incident happened due to a miscommunication.
“Regrettably, this was not the case for Ms. Curtis following a miscommunication that resulted in the delay of an aisle chair being made available at the gate on arrival and we are looking into what happened as a matter of urgency."
Following the incident, Curtis took to her Facebook handle and stated that she had "never felt so degraded" in her life.
