Send this page to someone via email

Vanilla Airlines has apologized after a disabled man was forced to crawl up a flight of stairs to get on an airplane in Japan earlier this month.

Hideto Kijima, who’s paralyzed from the waist down, was travelling to Oshima Island to swim with the sea turtles.

But at Amami Airport, he encountered a problem when there wasn’t any disability access to his plane.

Vanilla Airlines employees told him he wouldn’t be able to board the plane because of the lack of access, and wouldn’t let his companions carry him up the stairs.

He decided to board anyway, and crawled up the stairs.

Story continues below advertisement

“There is no choice but to ignore it and go up. Otherwise I cannot go back to Osaka,” he wrote on his blog.

Vanilla airlines has apologized to Kijima, who is a disabled rights activist and head of the Japan Accessible Tourism Centre, the Guardian reports.

“We apologized to him for the unpleasant experience,” spokesman Akihiro Ishikawa told the Guardian. “We also explained that we are taking measures to improve our service.” Tweet This

According to the airline, Amami Airport is the only airport without wheelchair access, and they are now working to install lifts. The lift went into service on Thursday, the New York Times reports.

On his blog, Kijima explained that he’s visited 158 countries in his wheelchair. He was never denied service even in remote areas in Africa and Asia.

“Amami Airport of Vanilla Air is a human rights violation,” he wrote. Tweet This

Though he received a lot of support, Kijima said he also received a lot of criticism.

“I was surprised how many people didn’t see this as an issue of basic human rights,” Kijima told NYT.

Story continues below advertisement

Comments on Facebook called him a “flying claimer,” and accused him targeting the airline.