BBC’s Frank Gardner forced to crawl to toilet on plane

On a flight from Warsaw back to London on Monday I had to crawl on the floor of the plane in order to reach the toilet.

I have been paralysed ever since I was shot by al-Qaeda gunmen in Saudi Arabia 20 years ago.

My experience onboard the flight was both physically deeply uncomfortable and also, of course, quite degrading.

I know that the discomfort that I and other disabled passengers encounter is dwarfed by the horrors being experienced by people in conflict zones around the world, stories that I cover – so my own experience is minor by comparison.

In this instance it was humiliating to have to shuffle along the floor of an aircraft in front of other passengers in my suit.

Polish Airlines LOT, which flies in and out of Heathrow, said it was not its policy to have onboard aisle chairs.

This is unacceptable for disabled passengers, since these devices are smaller than a pram, and can easily fold up to fit into a cupboard or an overhead locker.

British Airways, Easyjet, and every other airline I have flown with recently all have them on board as standard.

This shouldn’t be difficult to fix in my opinion. This ‘policy’ is surely wrong – it needs to be changed without delay.

This is 2024, not 1970, and I find it extraordinary that an airline is allowed to fly in and out of British airports with a policy that effectively says ‘if you can’t walk, you can’t go to the toilet on our planes’.