American actress Marissa Bode is addressing Southern Airways following allegations that she was denied boarding a flight because of her wheelchair, even though her manager had inquired with the company beforehand.
The actress who featured in the movie ‘Wicked’ as Nessarose in the big-screen adaptations expressed her frustrations on her TikTok platform. “I was denied boarding a flight because I’m disabled. I wish that were clickbait. I wish that were false, but that is what happened,” she said.
Bode noted that Southern Airways is “extremely, extremely small” and that she had to use the airline as her connecting flight as a result of limited choices flying to her destination in a small Pennsylvania town.
While switching flights, Bode remarked that she was having trouble finding her virtual ticket before boarding the Southern Airways plane. When she arrived at the gate, she asked two employees for assistance, but they instead told her she was not allowed to board due to being in a wheelchair.
“So I got to the gate, and I was like, ‘Hey, could you help me locate my boarding pass?’
“And the two people at the gate look at me, and they are like, ‘Can you stand?’ And I said, ‘No.’ And they said, ‘I’m sorry, but because of that, we’re going to have to deny you boarding.’
“They proceeded to tell me all the planes within this airline have stairs to get on the plane. Wild. Never heard of that before,” the actress said, narrating how she had been denied getting on the plane.
Meanwhile, according to Southern Airlines’ current contract of carriage, “Customers must be able to ascend and descend several steps to board the aircraft. Our aircraft hold 28 or fewer passengers and therefore are not required under the Air Carrier Access Act (section 382.97) to provide mechanical lift devices for enplaning or deplaning.”
After her post went viral, Bode posted a follow-up video stating that the director of Southern Airways’s mobility department had gotten in touch with her over the issue and was “mortified”, very “apologetic”, and very “understanding”, which she appreciated stating they are looking into the matter internally seeing as her manager had called to ask if she could be accommodated before booking the tickets.
“They are also currently staying in contact with me in terms of how we can make it better in the future,” she said.
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