"The case is inhumane. It is not humane to remove a child with such a severe disability from the plane, since you cannot secure his wheelchair". This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport Grozdan Karadjov regarding the case in which a low-cost airline removed a family with a 9-year-old child with limited mobility from its plane, bTV recalls.
Karadzhov explained that due to illegible handwriting, it was initially believed that the pilot had written down the inability to secure the wheelchair battery as the reason. It turns out that the stroller does not have a battery.
"The fact that the crew did not take care to secure it means that no care was taken for the person with a disability, which further infuriates me", said Karadjov.
He added that he had ordered a detailed inspection of the case by the Civil Aviation Administration. The data from it will be sent to the Discrimination Commission, and if there is a violation, the pilot will have to provide explanations to the relevant authorities.
According to Karadjov's preliminary information, the stroller meets the requirements of "Ryanair", and the carrier itself had the obligation to secure it. According to him, the company treats Bulgarian citizens as second-hand and has threatened to take measures.
9-year-old Milko, who suffers from spinal muscular atrophy and is being treated in Toulouse, was in Bulgaria for several days with his family. On the way home, however, an unpleasant incident occurred.
"They came, they picked us up, they put us on, we put our seat belts on and at one point the captain comes and says: you have to get off the plane. We asked what the reason was", his father says.
They were taken off the board by the pilot's decision.
Subsequently, the airport operator organized and covered the costs for a flight to Toulouse via Munich with another airline. Shortly after 7 p.m. yesterday, Milko and his family boarded the plane.