Disabled passenger breaks arm on Ryanair flight after airline fails to provide wheelchair
Man ‘humiliated’ after friend is forced to carry him to the toilet
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Your support makes all the difference.A disabled man is taking legal action against Ryanair after fracturing his arm on a flight.
Daniel Rooney, 38, had to be carried to the toilet by his friend during the service from Birmingham to Portugal when no onboard wheelchair was provided.
The Solihull resident said he was “humiliated” by the experience and sustained a fractured arm from falling off the toilet.
Rooney, who has Spinal Muscular Atrophy and uses a specialist wheelchair, said he needed the toilet about halfway through the flight.
He said he would normally relieve himself in a urine bag strapped to his leg, but could feel that it had fallen off and was unusable.
“My friend asked the stewardess if it was OK to go to the toilet very discreetly in the urine bottle that I carry,” he told Birmingham Live.
“We asked everyone around us first, it happens very discreetly no-one would have known it was going on.
“But my friend was point blank told to take me to the toilet. There was another hour or so left on the flight so there was no way I could last for that.”
The Ryanair website states: “Every Ryanair aircraft has an onboard aisle wheelchair, which crew use to assist reduced mobility passengers getting to and from the aircraft toilet door.”
However, Rooney claims he was not offered this, forcing his friend to physically carry him to the toilet.
His friend also had to support Rooney while on the toilet as he struggles with balance.
“But I finally did slip and banged the top of my shoulder on the side of some metal thing that was in the toilet,” said Rooney. “I knew straight away I’d hurt myself.”
He added that if he’d been offered a wheelchair and taken to a private area, he could have used a urine pot discreetly.
“It’s made me not want to fly again,” said Rooney.
Medical professionals have since confirmed the fracture, which Rooney claims has left him with problems eating and using his phone independently.
Ian Hass, MD of Ellis Hass & Co Solicitors, the firm that has accepted the case, said Ryanair failed to provide “human kindness”, leaving Rooney “injured and humiliated” as a result.
Ryanair said in a statement: “We don’t comment on pending legal matters.”
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