Jenny Berrie’s video showing her dragging herself across the floor of the AlbaStar flight
Jenny Berrie/TikTok
A woman filmed herself dragging her body to the bathroom after the cabin crew refused to assist her.
The video posted by Jenny Berrie, a wheelchair user, has got over five million views on TikTok.
She said, “I know it’s not something people want to see, but disabled people simply aren’t believed.”
A woman has gone viral on TikTok after filming her degrading experience as a wheelchair user on a flight needing to use the bathroom.
Jenny Berrie, from the UK, filmed herself dragging her body along an AlbaStar Air flight when the cabin crew refused to help her on the flight from Newcastle airport to Palma, Mallorca.
In her video, which has garnered over five million views, Berrie also said a crew member on her flight told her that “disabled people just wear [diapers]” rather than have to use the restroom.
Airlines usually transport disabled passengers using aisle chairs, specially built wheelchairs that are slim enough to fit through the galley of a plane.
However, while Berrie was transported to her seat using an aisle chair, Spain’s AlbaStar Air told her they could not keep one on board for her to use during the flight.
Insider has reached out to Berrie, but she stated on her Instagram that the high level of negative comments related to her viral video had led her to switch off her phone for long periods.
Writing about the ordeal on Instagram, Berrie said she was told by staff that “in 27 years of working on airlines, they’ve never seen the issue of disabled people having to wear nappies before.”
“Life as a disabled person can sometimes be downright degrading and embarrassing, and unfortunately, this was one of them times. To be outright told to my face that I should wear a nappy when I don’t need to and that they are happy with that policy made me feel humiliated,” she said in an Instagram story.
In her video, you can see airline staff rolling the bar cart past Berrie as she pulls herself to the bathroom.
In a statement to Insider, Alabaster Air said they “express its sincere apologies for the event that recently took place on one of our flights in relation to the flight experience of a passenger with reduced mobility” and added, “aisle wheelchairs are not mandatory as per current regulation, not even recommended nor mentioned when talking about aircraft equipment/furnishing.”
In response, Berrie has launched a petition to have aisle chairs mandatory on all UK flights and has almost 5,000 signatures.
Speaking on Instagram, Berrie said she was “glad she got video footage of it all,” adding, “I know it’s not something people want to see, but without this footage, disabled people simply aren’t believed.”
In addition, she said that it is “incredibly embarrassing and degrading” to share these experiences online but that she does so to “ensure that things change.”
Wheelchair users and their chairs are often treated poorly on airlines, with the US Department of Transportation data showing an average of 35.8 wheelchairs are broken or damaged on flights daily.
The lack of accessible bathrooms on flights is a prominent issue for disabled travelers, with wheelchair-user Theo Donnelly previously telling Insider that he is forced to resort to urinating in bottles if he wishes to fly.