In this article, TV presenter, journalist and disability rights campaigner Mik Scarlet talks about his experiences flying as a passenger with reduced mobility.

My first trip on a plane following becoming a wheelchair user was when I was twenty one. My best mate and I flew off to Ibiza, back before it became the rave capital of the world and was instead a hippy alternative haven, and had booked through a package holiday company. We flew from an airport that required steps up to the plane, meaning I had to be carried up in a carry on chair. Once I had been strapped in, I waved goodbye to my wheelchair being told I would get it back at baggage claim in Ibiza. I was then carried up the the stairs but rather than being lifted up head first, the ground crew carried me up feet first, with my head firmly pushed into the groin of one of those lifting me.

Obviously they had made a mistake, and this was compounded when they had no idea how to to put me down once in the plane, so they dropped me. This hurt, but I swallowed the pain and my pride as I had no idea that this was not the standard method for getting wheelchair users on to flights. The flight went fine, thanks to a few beers but on arrival things really came off the rails. It took an age to get taken off the plane, so much so that by the time we arrived at baggage reclaim the only things left on the carousel was our suitcases and my wheelchair. My obviously broken wheelchair. Even before I tried to sit in my chair everyone could see it had been snapped in two. Everyone “assisting” me claimed they could do nothing and I was left to battle my way into the coach before setting off to our hotel. I spent a week trapped in the hotel room while my best mate tried to find someone who could weld my chair together.

Read the rest at: https://www.internationalairportreview.com/article/67047/taking-flight/