INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Ryanair Staff Tells Double Amputee To ‘Crawl’ To The Plane [Video]

By Anne Sewell
Published on: 21:57 PST, Mar 28, 2016

A double amputee was told he should crawl across the tarmac to a Ryanair plane and would also have to crawl down the aisle when requiring the toilet during the flight.

Matthew Parkes is a double amputee who was returning to Manchester from a vacation in Malaga, Spain with his wife and four-year-old daughter. Parkes complained that Ryanair staff at Malaga International Airport told him he had to leave his wheelchair and crawl to the plane.

Parkes, 38, told the Manchester Evening News that the Ryanair staff wanted him to crawl down two ramps and a set of stairs and then across the tarmac to the plane. Once there, they told him he would have to crawl up the stairs on to the plane.

On his flight out to Malaga from Manchester, Parkes said he was boarded first by the airline Monarch, was treated well and seated close to the toilets on the flight. However, he says Ryanair is a different story altogether.

Parkes lost both legs and a part of a hand after he contracted a life-threatening sepsis last November and says Ryanair made him feel humiliated and “like I didn’t matter.” What makes it worse is that his condition is still new to him and he is not yet used to people staring at him.

“I felt like a second-class citizen and was so embarrassed when this is so fresh and I’m still getting used to people staring at me. Total humiliation.”

However, when Parkes refused to crawl to the plane, Ryanair staff made him wait until all other passengers were boarded and seated and then allegedly hauled him the entire length of the plane in a stretcher chair.

“They dragged me backwards from the front to the back of the plane, knocking into people. Everyone was staring at me,” he said.

Parkes then had to drag himself up on to the seat without any help from the flight crew. When he asked how he was supposed to get to the toilet, flight crew said he would have to “crawl up the aisle”.

Parkes says he is so disgusted by the treatment he received from the company that he will never be using the airline again.

Parkes’ wife, Pamela, complained at the Ryanair desk at the airport, saying her husband had been treated like an animal on the way back to Manchester. “He wasn’t recognized as a person, and I had to see my husband be humiliated.”

“I’m absolutely disgusted. They need to change their policy for disabled people.”

According to Pamela, they had requested that a sandwich be served to her husband early in the flight to aid his medication, but this request was ignored, and they were served last. She said they would be submitting an official formal complaint to Ryanair.

As reported by The Local, after the incident, Ryanair denied the claims by Parkes and his wife, saying, “This passenger ordered, and was provided with, PRM (passenger with reduced mobility) assistance at Malaga Airport. This service is provided to all airlines by the airport operator AENA.”

The Ryanair spokesperson went on to say they had received no reports from either the cabin crew or the PRM provider relating to any issues in assisting Parkes to his seat.

“As far as we can tell there is no truth to these claims and no complaints were made by this passenger or his two traveling companions to either our cabin crew or the PRM assistance provider.”

Parkes can be heard telling his story in the video included below.

[Photo via Flickr by The Integer Club, cropped and resized/CC BY 2.0]

Share this article: Ryanair Staff Tells Double Amputee To ‘Crawl’ To The Plane [Video]
More from Inquisitr