TOKYO // A Japanese airline has apologised for making a wheelchair user hoist himself up the stairs from the tarmac to board his flight.
The incident took place earlier this month when Hideto Kijima was returning to Osaka from the southern island of Amami with his friends.
Vanilla Air, the budget affiliate of All Nippon Airways, told Kijima that the tiny airport requires use of stairs and has no lift to safely carry a disabled person onto the plane. The company refused to let his friends carry him in his wheelchair or separately.
The 44-year-old Kijima, paralysed from the waist down, wrote on his blog that he hoisted himself up the stairs with his arms.
Vanilla said on Wednesday it has apologised to Kijima, and that new lifts were being installed.
* Associated Press
