A disabled man was told he had to disembark an easyJet flight because he ‘couldn’t walk to the toilet’.
Barry Dobner, 79, was due to travel from Manchester to Athens on an easyJet flight on April 3 with his wife Alison and friend Sheila.
The trio had planned to spend two weeks abroad in Greece and had arranged for wheelchair-friendly transport and accommodation.
But the trip was cancelled before it could even begin, when Barry said he was removed from the plane minutes before take-off after staff realised he would be unable to access the bathroom.
The 79-year-old, who has used a wheelchair since suffering a stroke 18 years ago, said: ‘The whole plane was standing up watching what was going on. You can imagine how that made me feel.’
easyJet had been made aware that he was a wheelchair user when he and Alison booked their flights – even given assisted boarding for the flight.
But trouble began when a member of the cabin crew overheard that Barry had a portable urinal bottle in his hand luggage in case of emergency.
The stewardess walked past the trio and asked if Barry had a urinal bottle, to which Alison replied: ‘Yes, in case of emergencies.’
The stewardess then asked them to wait and came back to ask if Barry was able to walk to the toilet.
Alison replied: ‘No, my husband can’t walk at all.’ They were then told they had to get off the plane because ‘he can’t walk to the toilet.’
Barry said the whole group got off the plane and had to be picked up from the airport by a friend to go back home.
Barry said: ‘I’ve always been a happy-go-lucky chap but this has knocked me back a bit. I feel like just an object, I’m not a person any more. My self-respect had gone right down.
‘Since I had my stroke I’ve been in a wheelchair and I’ve been trying to keep not maudlin and carry on. But when someone says that to you it knocks the stuffing out of you. It’s that sort of feeling. Your confidence just disappears.’
Barry said he has flown six times since his stroke and had never encountered an issue before.
Alison, 67, said: ‘To treat a disabled person like that was appalling, especially when they had all the information beforehand. It’s just ludicrous. The other passengers were sitting there gobsmacked.’
The couple had planned the holiday as an early 80th birthday celebration for Barry and say they lost around £2,000 due to the missed flight.
‘We had hotels booked in Athens. We had a hire car paid for to pick us up at the airport, and we’ve lost £2,000. We’ve lost everything.
‘We don’t know if we’ll get the flight money back. When I asked if we’d be reimbursed for the flight, we just got told to call easyJet,’ Barry said.
An easyJet spokesman said: ‘We are very sorry Mr and Mrs Dobner and their companion were unable to fly as planned with easyJet. We are in touch with Mr Dobson and his party to apologise for this error and to refund them in full for their flight and provide them with denied boarding compensation.
‘As an airline, we are committed to making easyJet accessible to everyone. easyJet carries around one million passengers requiring some form of assistance each year and our research shows that 87% of easyJet passengers who require this are satisfied with the services we provide.’
Metro has contacted easyJet for more information.
In 2023, a heavily pregnant woman and her family said they were kicked off an easyJet flight after asking for help with luggage.
Siobhan Foster said stewards onboard the Ibiza-bound flight falsely accused her of being ‘abusive’ shortly after she boarded the plane at Belfast Airport with her husband, mum, brother and 18-month-old disabled daughter.
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