A paraplegic athlete has criticized airline flyDubai for humiliating him after he was forced to urinate into a bottle on an intercontinental flight.
Last month, Darren Belling flew to Finland to represent Australia in the World Para Ice Hockey Championships. The 52-year-old boarded a flight to Helsinki from Dubai, and approximately three hours into the flight he enquired about a wheelchair as he needed to use to the toilet.
Airline staff reportedly told Belling they did not have a wheelchair on board and that he would not be able to access the facilities.
"They said 'we don't carry on-board wheelchairs,' and told me just to hold on for the seven-hour flight," he was quoted as saying by ABC News.
"It's a seven-hour flight. I mean we've done three hours in.
"I'd like to see someone else who's had a big cup of coffee after three hours and thinks, 'I don't need to go to the dunny [Australian slang for toilet].'"
To his amazement, flight attendants provided him with an empty plastic bottle so he could urinate while seated, but tried to make him pay for a blanket he needed to cover himself.
"I was just in disbelief over the level of treatment," he added.
"It just throws up in your face that you've got a disability and some people and businesses don't have an empathetic view of it and treat you differently.
"The way I was talked to and treated is enough to stop someone from wanting to leave the house."
A number of airlines carry specifically designed wheelchairs that allow passengers to move through the narrow plane aisles. FlyDubai, however, stated it was unable to provide such wheelchairs.
According to the BBC, the airline said it planned to speak with Belling, who has used a wheelchair for over 30 years as a result of a car accident.
To compound his predicament, Belling experienced issues on the return flight to Australia. He boarded an Emirates flight in Dubai but once he landed in Brisbane after a 14-hour journey, he was told his own wheelchair had been left at the airport.
"I'm thinking 'no it can't possibly be,'" he said.
"How can my wheelchair—when all these chairs were booked together—get left behind?" he said.
An Emirates staff member contacted the team in Dubai, who told him the chair had not made it on the plane as there was no room for it in the hold.
"I'm straight away like, 'Mate, it's not a bag. I can understand bags being left behind—it's a wheelchair. It's a necessity. I can't walk. I need the wheelchair. The bags I can do without'," he said.
"The ladies pushing me were quite embarrassed that my chair hadn't turned up."
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Dan Cancian is currently a reporter for Newsweek based in London, England. Prior to joining Newsweek in January 2018, he ... Read more
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