A paralysed woman who was forced to crawl off a Jetstar flight after being told to pay for a wheelchair has been targeted by hateful trolls since revealing her ordeal.
Natalie Curtis said she was offered a free customised wheelchair that fits in plane aisles when boarding her flight from Singapore to Bangkok on October 27.
But when she landed in Bangkok and required the same service, she claims she was told she would need to pay up if she wanted to be wheeled off the plane.
Ms Curtis refused to pay, instead crawling to the door of the plane before getting into her regular wheelchair.
She said her friend was unable to carry her and she was not being comfortable with being picked up by a male airline crew member.
Natalie Curtis was forced to crawl down the aisle of a Jetstar plane after she was not offered a complementary wheelchair (pictured)
Frustrated by Jetstar’s response to her complaint about her ordeal, she told her story to Seven’s Sunrise program – including sharing the harrowing video.
But Ms Curtis told Daily Mail Australia she was shocked when trolls started to target her.
‘I got all these hate comments,’ she said.
‘As soon as it went online the comments started and I had friends who were commenting trying to stand up for me.
‘I was quite emotional already. so basically I broke down to Sunrise, and they were like “we’ll turn off the comments don’t stress”.
Ms Curtis said after sharing her story with national breakfast show Sunrise she was surprised by the nasty comments that were made
Some of those responding to the story accused Ms Curtis of trying to get to compensation
‘I was not expecting the backlash that I got.
‘I just wouldn’t make comments that are bad about anyone.’
The trolls accused Ms Curtis of telling her story in a bid to get compensation or out of desperation to appear on TV and claimed she was not telling the whole truth.
Ms Curtis, who has represented Australia in wheelchair basketball, said she shared her story to make sure it didn’t happen to anyone else.
‘I’m a huge advocate of disabled people, so having something like that happening to me, I couldn’t imagine it happening to someone else,’ she said.
Others who commented on the Sunrise story accused Ms Curtis of trying to get TV exposure
‘I don’t want anyone to feel as low as I did having to go through that.
‘It was quite humiliating having to crawl along the ground so it definitely wasn’t for my five minutes of fame.
‘I definitely did not do it for money.’
Ms Curtis said after the flight landed in Bangkok she spent a frustrating 40 minutes on the phone to Jetstar trying to complain.
Some of those commenting accused Ms Curtis of not presenting the whole truth about her experience
She said the woman on the phone was not being helpful, wanted to call her back in seven days and would not let Ms Curtis speak to her manager.
‘By the end of it I was in tears,’ Ms Curtis said.
‘The next day I did get a call from Jetstar wanting to touch base with me but I didn’t want to speak to them at that stage.’
The airline has since said it is not policy to charge for using a wheelchair to board or disembark from its planes.
Jetstar said it was investigating the incident as a ‘matter of urgency’ and that initial inquiries indicated Ms Curtis’s special requirement for a wheelchair upon landing was not entered as a request in its system.
Ms Curtis said Jetstar had refunded her flight and offered a $500 gift card, which she has declined because ‘I am never travelling with Jetstar again’.
‘They were very apologetic and they felt possibly as bad as I felt regarding the whole situation,’ Ms Curtis said.
‘I think it’s a big learning curve for them.’
Ms Curtis is a wheelchair basketball player who has represented Australia at overseas tournaments
Ms Curtis said her story ended up on Sunrise because she told a friend who knew one of the show’s producers.
‘I didn’t realise it would blow up the way it did, so many media outlets in Australia have contacted me, and (from) overseas. So it has been quite big,’ she said.
Ms Curtis, who lives in the north Queensland city of Townsville, was in Bangkok to celebrate her 35th birthday.
Sunrise has offered to fly her home, first class, on Thai Airways and Qantas.
Ms Curtis, who lives in the north Queensland city of Townsville, was in Bangkok to celebrate her 35th birthday
Ms Curtis has been paralysed since an operation on her spine in her teenage years.
‘I woke up with no movement from the waist down,’ she said.
‘It was something that I got told could happen but I thought it wouldn’t happen.
‘At the end of the day they tried to fix it and it didn’t go the way it should.’
Ms Curtis runs her own business and attempts to help other people with paralysis with her understanding of the particular challenges they face.
‘The hardest thing was going to the toilet and not being able to stand up to pull my pants up,’ she said.
‘So having to roll from side to side just to pull my pants up that was probably the hardest thing.
‘It’s those little things that people don’t often think about those are the hardest things.’
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