Loose Women’s Sophie Morgan fronted tonight’s Channel 4 documentary following undercover disabled passengers filming their treatment at airlines flying from the UK
Sophie Morgan left Channel 4 viewers in tears with her new documentary highlighting the mistreatment of disabled flyers around the UK.
The Loose Women star fronted the one-off special following undercover disabled passengers filming their experiences at airlines around the country. It made for “uncomfortable viewing” said one viewer on X earlier tonight, formally Twitter.
One scene showed a man “treated like luggage” on a WhizzAir flight, sparking furious comments from more viewers. “It’s unbelievable what disabled travellers have to put up with & has to stop. It sickens me to hear these examples from clients,” wrote another.
Somone else said: “That scene when @WhizzAir told the disabled man that in order to fly, they’ll have to take his wheelchair away, made me cry so much. He called ahead & WhizzAir said it was OK. It’s dispeakable that disabled people are treated like luggage.”
“Sophie Morgan’s documentary #fighttofly highlighting the vast inequalities faced by people with disabilities when it comes to travelling by air. Basic human rights being failed yet again,” another added. A fourth wrote on the social media site: “#fighttofly an outstanding programme on Channel 4. Well done, Sophie Morgan.”
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Fans were left fuming at the documentary’s findings
“Sophie Morgan’s fight to fly channel 4 programme is a shocking eye – opener Any of us could end up using a wheelchair and having this poor treatment by airlines is horrendous,” a final concluded, with someone saying: “Couple of minutes in and I’m already emotional.”
The passenger was forced to drag himself along the floor of the aircraft to reach the toilet because his needs were ignored. On that same flight, the captain reportedly blamed a take-off delay on the time taken to load wheelchairs. Others faced refusal at the gate as their wheelchairs were deemed “too heavy”, despite having shared all necessary details before the flight. In a separate case, a BA traveller from London to Paris nearly toppled from an aisle chair and later discovered her wheelchair damaged after being stowed away.
Sophie tasked 17 individuals reliant on wheelchairs or mobility aids to document their flying experiences. She commented: “You are told that you have to call ahead and give all of your information; the weight, the dimensions, everything about your chair, you have to hand over all this information in advance. You get there and someone turns around and says, sorry, no, we don’t have that information, we can’t help you.”
Both Wizz Air and BA expressed regret for the incidents unveiled in tonight’s broadcast. A spokesperson for Wizz Air mentioned: “We were extremely sorry to hear about the experiences of these customers. Unfortunately, on this particular flight, there was no aisle wheelchair. We are in the process of having aisle chairs available on all of our aircraft, with 85% of our fleet already having them. We apologise for the way the pilot communicated the delay with passengers and recognise there would have been a more appropriate way for customers to have been notified.”
In their apology, British Airways said, “We’re sorry to our customers for the unacceptable experience. It’s extremely disheartening when things go wrong but we’re committed to learning from these incidents…and have been in touch with our customers directly to apologise and arrange service recovery. We successfully carry hundreds of thousands of customers who require additional assistance each year.”
