A handicapped Irish man has blasted Ryanair for its “unacceptable” disability accommodations after he was forced to “bunny-hop” off a flight without help over the weekend.
Adrian Keogh, of Wicklow — who has used a wheelchair since he suffered a spinal injury in a 2015 construction accident – was told that it would take one hour for assistance to arrive to help him disembark after his Ryanair flight landed at Landvetter Airport in Sweden on Saturday, the BBC reported.
Keogh said he could not wait for help because he was in pain from the flight and needed to use the restroom. His brother offered to carry him off the aircraft, but that was also deemed too risky.
“They were steep, corrugated steel steps,” Keogh said.
“If he fell we would have both been hurt so I had to bunny-hop down myself.”
He told Insider that the incident made him “embarrassed,” and noted that he paid for priority boarding “so that I could have some comfort that nothing would happen to me.”
Keogh said that traveling as a wheelchair user is often frustrating.
“This is not the first time I’ve been stuck on a plane after everyone else has disembarked,” he told the BBC.
“It’s unacceptable – all I ask for is to be able to travel with dignity.”
In a statement to Insider, Ryanair apologized for Keogh’s experience and said they were “working with Landvetter Airport to ensure this does not recur.”
Landvetter also issued its own apology, which attributed Keogh’s treatment to “unforeseen events” that delayed the assistance service.
Keogh’s Ryanair debacle is the latest public accessibility issue to make headlines. Earlier this year, Denver councilperson Chris Hinds was forced to crawl onto a debate stage after no ramps were available.
“I’m about to start a debate, I’m about to do my best to share with the people who are in front of me why I am the best candidate. Meanwhile, I am out of my wheelchair, laying on the stage,” Hinds said of the difficult moment.