Dear friends,

 

Below a story, I got from Andre van Deventer from South Africa, just to show one more example of travel difficulties for pwd.

I wonder how they got home later.

 

Lex Grandia

 

 

PRESS STATEMENT

BY ANDREW KUDAKWASHE DUBE

MANAGING DIRECTOR: SAMAITA ASSOCIATES

RESOURCE ADVISOR & MEMBER: DISABLED PEOPLE SOUTH AFRICA (DPSA)

 Telephone/Fax: 0438511561

Email: akdube@...

Cellphone: 0832842232

 Thank you very much for showing interest in this press briefing.

 The subject of this briefing in an unfortunate incident that took place on tarmac of Lilongwe International Airport in Malawi.

 On 17 March 2006, a group of about sixteen persons with disabilities boarded South African Airways Flight from Lilongwe to Johannesburg. After having gone through all the boarding formalities, the disabled passengers were taken to the aircraft for boarding. Half way through the boarding process, and while some of us were in the Passenger Aid Unit vehicle, and on the tarmac, we were informed that the Captain had instructed that we be offloaded the plane for 'safety reason'.

 Half of our disabled passengers who were already in the plane were instructed to leave the plane without any explanation being given. They were told by the senior cabin crew member: 'we will talk outside'. This same senior cabin crew member, who was apparently carrying out the instructions of the Captain, was un-cooperative, visibly angry with us in full view of the other passengers.

 The disabled passengers were then all offloaded and/or man handled to get out of the plane. One disabled person from Botswana forcibly removed from his seat against his will and shunted down the stair case in from of stunned passengers and other crew members in the cabin. He was then grabbed and held in the hands of one member of the ground staff for more than five minutes while they retrieved his wheelchair from the hold. This humiliating episode was all done in full view of passengers and ground staff.

 Some of the disabled persons were then forced into a waiting bus, and those of us in the PAU were denied permission to talk to the Captain or to join our colleagues who gathered on the tarmac waiting to either board the flight or to obtain an explanation from the Captain.

 A lady who had a broken hip, and accompanied by her daughter for urgent medical treatment in South Africa was also offloaded against her will and in severe pain as they spirited her out of the aeroplane and down the staircase.

 Having been driven back to the main terminal building against our will, some members of our group then started moving back to the aeroplane accompanied by ground security in order to obtain an explanation from the Captain. We were stopped halfway towards the aircraft which, at that time still had its doors open.

 While we waited, we were also joined by our Guest, Mr Mark Harrison, from the Overseas Development Group (ODG), University of East Anglia in the UK. He refused to go back into plane if we were left behind. As we waited, we were shocked to watch the Captain or a member of his crew in the cockpit, open the windows of the cockpit and throwing down to a ground staff Mr Mark Harrision' hand language and taking off with our checked in language.

 We content that the Captain acted in a manner that was disrespectful in treated us the way we were treated on this flight. Options for our care and assistance on board were never explored. Our dignity was violated.

 We feel that we were discriminated against on the basis of our disability and the general attitude of the Captain and his purser was both negative and dehumanising.

 By carrying our unaccompanied luggage and leaving us on the tarmac, we feel the Captain and his purser severely compromised the very safety clauses that they purported to uphold.

The workshop in Malawi was about disseminating the results of research that found out there is a serious lack of implementation of policies that protect and safeguard the rights of persons with disabilities.

The South African version of this workshop will be implemented from 22-24 March 2006. In all we invited more than thirty governments and only two have confirmed their attendance up to now.

 With regard to this particular incident, we are in the process of exploring all legal options and phases of action at our disposal.

 In addition, we would like to call on SAA to implement a well targeted awareness raising work among all its personnel in order to ensure that persons with disabilities, sick passengers and elderly persons do not have their rights violated in the process of implementing safety regulations.

 Furthermore, we urge the Department of Transport and all invited government departments, to participate in the forthcoming workshop in order to obtain advice and support on how to integrate persons with disabilities in their work.

 This was only but one incident that is not different from similar incidents that take in the public transport sector in South Africa. We urge the Department to provide funding and facilitate the implementation of their own strategies for the transport sector including the Disabled Accessibility Transport Environment (DATE) Programme that was designed specifically to deal with and effectively address the transport problems faced by persons with disabilities, sick passengers, mothers with children and elderly persons.