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Dan Buckingham and Tanya Black - Source: Close Up -
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Two disabled television presenters were "dismayed and insulted" at being barred from boarding their Jetstar flight in Auckland this morning.
Dan Buckingham and Tanya Black, from Attitude TV , are frequent air travellers but were stopped from boarding because they didn't have caregivers with them.
The pair, along with their producer, were on their way to meet with disability groups in Wellington about a government campaign to change attitudes towards disabled people.
The television presenters fly between 30 and 40 times a year but this morning they were grounded.
Buckingham told Close Up everything was fine until they got to the aircraft door. They say they were held on the airbridge for half an hour while staff scurried around but no one told them anything.
"Nobody seemed to want to talk to us," Black said. "We kept asking them is it us, is there an issue with the wheelchairs and they were 'oh the captain's just checking something'".
Eventually staff called the pair's producer Robyn Scott-Vincent to the airbridge and told her they couldn't travel because they didn't have caregivers.
Jetstar's policy says the airline won't let someone travel without an accompanying passenger "unless the person can travel independently" - meaning they can travel safely without assistance, supervision, or both.
"I do everything independently," Black said.
"I live on my own, I drive a car, I work and I have a job that demands that I travel, not just all round New Zealand but all over the world, and sometimes I have to do that on my own.
"I don't need assistance, I don't need a carer."
Buckingham said the situation went beyond embarrassing and became insulting. He said staff wouldn't talk to them.
"There was even one comment made that if we'd known they were in wheelchairs we would have asked if they'd toileted themselves....I'm 30 years old, if someone's gonna tell me to go to the toilet before I get on the plane, I'm gonna tell them where to go pretty quickly."
Scott-Vincent said Jetstar's attitude was insulting, especially in choosing to hold an entire plane up rather than work with the people involved.
"Dan's a big guy, he was gutted, he was embarrassed," said Scott-Vincent.
Buckingham and Black are used to transferring themselves from their wheelchairs several times a day. They've done it hundreds of times - including on a plane - and on their own. They just need someone to stow their chair once they have sat down.
Buckingham said they get themselves to the aircraft door, transfer from their wheelchair to an aisle chair and self transfer into the seat. "Then we're fine for the rest of the flight, we don't need any help." He said it's the same process at the other end.
Black said Jetstar's policy is based on a health and safety issue in case of emergency that they would need someone to help but she said she lives with the reality of that every day. "If the plane goes down, I'm probably going down with it, but this is a policy that actually stops me living my life and that's frustrating."
Ironically the TV presenters were heading to Wellington to talk to IHC and the Office of Disability Issues about the government's Making a Difference campaign.
They missed their first meeting and were late for the second.
Buckingham said he generally finds New Zealanders great and he said the country leads the world over disability issues in a lot of ways. "But every now and then the bubble bursts, so that's something were chipping away at."
Black is seeking a policy change. She said while some people with disabilities need to travel with a carer, if they can travel independently then they need to be respected for that.
They say they were eventually told they could get on the flight, but only if they didn't tell anyone about what had happened. They opted to take a later flight on Air New Zealand.
Jetstar's chief executive David Hall has unreservedly apologised for what happened. He told Mark Sainsbury Jetstar is committed to hassle free travel, including those with special needs, and in this case they got it wrong.
"Where we fail in service delivery, I take personal
responsibility...we will get better."
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