"It just beggars belief, Don’t these people have children?"

A mother of two wheelchair users has hit out at an airline after they failed to provide her son with an aisle wheelchair and she was forced to drag him down the aisle to the bathroom on a recent flight.

Heike Fabig is demanding change and rightly so.

She is demanding answers and a resolution so no other family goes through what hers did.

A family holiday to Fiji was always going to take lots of planning for a family with two children using wheelchairs, but Heike Fabig and her husband were prepared they made sure that Virgin Australia were aware of their needs.

The trip, last September was meant to be as she writes on her blog, Rollercoaster Parenting a “much needed holiday to Fiji”.

What took place left her reeling and she is now demanding that all airlines have an aisle wheelchair on board every flight.

Heike’s 14-year old son, Kai suffers from spastic paraplegia and the rare disorder Chronic Inflammatory Demyelinating Polyneuropathy.

On her blog she describes him as “the alphabet kid (HSP, ASD, OCD, BD, Anxiety and a very beautiful soul)”

It’s a distressing tale she tells of what occurred on board that flight last September. She wrote on her blog that they were assured they would be able to take the wheelchairs to the door of the plane and that, yes, there would be an aisle chair available.

She says that boarding was a relatively simple affair.

“We were able to take our wheelchairs to the door of the plane where I then carried BooBoo (8 years old and 20kg) to her seat (4th row) and one of those skinny aisle wheelchairs took Beaver (13 years old and 50kg) to his seat. For those wondering why I carry BooBoo – she cannot sit safely in the aisle chairs the airlines provide and well, she’s still light enough.”

Two hours into the flight she then asked the attendant if they could be brought the aisle chair so that she could take Kai, who she calls Beaver in her blog, to the bathroom.

On her blog she describes what happened next

“Our lovely flight attendant Lynska went red as a beetroot and explained to me that, eh, there wasn’t one. Never had been.

I was stunned.

So, how am I meant to change my son?

Eh. You could change him in his seat?

I bloody well will not. He is a 13-year old boy who has recently lost the use of his legs and became incontinent. I will NOT put him through the indignity of changing his nappy in front of a hundred people.”

Heike told The Daily Mail that she was stunned at the suggestion, not just from the flight attendants but also from other passengers that she change him on his seat.

“It just beggars belief, Don’t these people have children? “

“So I lifted him up and carried him. Well, dragged him. Can’t quite carry a 50 kg dead weight person in a narrow aisle. My bad.”

She says that the flight attendant was actually mortified and wrote a report as well as assuring them it would not happen on the return flight.

But disappointingly exactly the same thing happened.

She told The Daily Mail “They’re actually really good in getting you onto the plane (via wheelchair).

“Once you’re there you can just pee your pants.”

Heike contacted Virgin Australia via Twitter and email.

Initially she received no response until she was re-tweeted last year by the late Stella Young.

She wrote on her blog “Seriously, if my son’s dignity wasn’t involved in all this, I would be sorely tempted to let him shit his pants and see what happens…”

Finally they emailed her saying “I apologise on behalf of the Virgin Group of airlines for the stress and inconvenience caused to you and your son.

“As per our discussion we do take this matter very seriously.

“However, whilst we remain focused on obtaining an outcome, I’m unable to provide a specific date for resolution.”

Heike wants an aisle wheelchair provided on every flight and more than just a series of letters with non-answers.

In a letter to the CEO of Virgin Australia, John Borghetti she writes

 “I am still waiting to receive a satisfactory response. I have received two almost identically worded template email (13th December 2014 and 22nd of January 2015) stating “Thank you for your patience. My colleagues and I continue to review this matter and will be in contact in due course”.

I’m sorry, but that’s just not good enough.

I want to know what is actually happening. I want to know WHY you do not have an aisle chair on all flights. Matthew mentioned something about “international safety regulations” but surely they can’t be that complicated that Qantas can comply with them and Virgin Australia cannot? I fail to find anything on the CASA, which outlines safety issues with regards to aisle chairs, in fact, quite the opposite.

The website states, in its “Guide for Airline Operators: Ensure the aisle chair is available during every flight. (…) Not having the aisle chair available during a flight and refusing to help a passenger to the toilet is a denial of their rights”. (www.casa.gov.au/scripts/nc.dll?WCMS:STANDARS::pc=PC_90328)

If there are other safety regulations Matthew was thinking of, could someone please explain these safety regulations to me? How does Virgin Australia intend to address basic human rights of its disabled passengers with these regulations?

Furthermore, I would like to know what your policies and procedures are when you get confronted by a customer issue like this. Matthew told me his team was meeting with various air safety specialists. Please can someone explain to me, which meetings are attended, by whom, and what is discussed/proposed there.

John, my son is 13 years old and became seriously ill in 2014. Within the spate of two months he lost the ability to walk and toilet independently. Can you imagine how embarrassed and mortified he felt?

While I was certainly not happy with the initial issue, I have grown even more frustrated with the responses (or lack of) I have received from Virgin Australia.

Please can you adequately respond to the initial situation my son found himself in on your planes in September 2014? Can you please inform me, in writing, what Virgin Australia intends to do with regards to on board aisle wheelchairs, and to the questions I have outlined above.

Sincerely Yours

Heike Fabig

We will keep you updated with their response.