YOU NEED TO KNOW
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British journalist Mark Mardell was allegedly kicked off a Turkish Airlines flight due to his Parkinson’s disease
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“It’s this terrible feeling that you’re so vulnerable, I almost burst into tears about five times,” said the former BBC presenter.
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The 68-year-old also alleged that he was stranded at the airport for seven hours before finally booking a flight home on a different airline the following day.
A British journalist was stranded at an airport for seven hours after allegedly being kicked off a Turkish Airlines flight because of his Parkinson’s disease.
Traveling back to London from Istanbul after a week-long road trip with his son, 68-year-old Mark Mardell said he was prevented from boarding his flight without a letter from his GP stating he was fit to travel.
“I feel so humiliated,” the former BBC presenter and chief political correspondent said recently The Sunday Times. “It’s this terrible feeling that you are so vulnerable. I almost burst into tears about five times.”
PEOPLE reached out to Turkish Airlines for comment on Sunday, Nov. 30, but did not receive an immediate response.
Parkinson’s disease is a movement disorder of the nervous system that gets worse over time, according to the Mayo Clinic. Symptoms include tremors, slow movements, poor posture and balance, loss of automatic movements, changes in speech, and non-motor symptoms such as depression and anxiety.
While Mardell traveled to Istanbul on October 20 without any issues and without requesting a doctor’s letter, he encountered an unexpected obstacle while requesting assisted boarding during his journey home.
“It’s quite a difficult thing to admit, even to yourself, that you are disabled,” he explained to the shop. “It’s not bad for me to say: ‘I need assisted boarding, I’m disabled’… You know it lowers you in the esteem of some people, makes you less in their eyes.”
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“We thought they originally meant a letter from your doctor to prove you had Parkinson’s,” he continued. “No, it turns out you can’t fly without a letter from your doctor saying there’s no harm in flying.”
After a while, Mardell insisted that his son Jake, 32, board his own flight while he waited for more help. And during the seven hours he spent waiting alone in one of the biggest airports in the world, Mardell recalled one woman who made the experience especially humiliating.
“There was one woman who was really horrible,” he alleged. “She said, ‘No he has Parkinson’s, you can’t let him on board.’ She went to be horrible to another passenger in a wheelchair and screamed at them.”
“She said, ‘Look at you, your hands are shaking,'” he continued. “My hand didn’t shake. It’s not one of my symptoms. But maybe it was because I was nervous and upset. She was so mean. She said: “It’s for your own good.” So my bags were taken off the flight.”
In the end, another passenger helped Mardell retrieve his bags and his son booked him a hotel to sleep in for the night. The next day, he booked a return flight home with Wizz Air and returned to the UK on 26 October.
After contacting Turkish Airlines about the experience, an employee reportedly wished him a “speedy recovery,” although Parkinson’s is an incurable disease, and issued him a full refund for the missed flight.
“You’re feeling vulnerable anyway and you’re shaking around … and I just couldn’t move anymore. I just wanted to sit down,” said Mardell about the hours he spent waiting at the airport. “The strange thing was that they say it’s for your own good and then they let you wander around an airport.”
Although Mardell’s flight was operated by a “non-UK/EU carrier,” the UK Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement, “We strongly believe that everyone should have access to air travel and recognize how important it is for people to feel supported and included when they fly.”
Read the original article on People