A disabled man was forced to crawl through the aisle of a plane after airline staff allegedly failed to offer him assistance when the flight landed.
D’Arcee Neal was travelling on a United Airlines plane which landed in Washington.
When the plane landed, according to reports, no one from the airline came to bring Mr Neal an aisle chair to assist him off the plane.
Mr Neal has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. His normal wheelchair was at the back of the plane; hence he needed an aisle chair to transport him to it.
He told NBC Washington: “I was like I don’t have time for this [to wait] and so I decided to get out and crawl down the plane to my chair, got in it and then went about my business to the airport.”
“I mean, it’s humiliating. Noone should have to do what I did.”
Mr Neal was returning from San Francisco, California — a disability rights activist himself, he had reportedly been speaking about accessible transportation for disabled people.
A spokesperson for United Airlines told The Independent: "In the situation involving Mr Neal, an aisle chair was waiting at the gate when his flight arrived. As customers began to exit the aircraft, we made a mistake and told the agent with the aisle chair that it was no longer needed, and it was removed from the area."
"When we realised our error – that Mr Neal was onboard and needed the aisle chair – we arranged to have it brought back, but it arrived too late. We’ve apologised to him for that delay."
"We hope that all of our customers understand that this situation doesn’t reflect the level of service we provide to customers with disabilities each day."
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