Japan carrier forces wheelchair-bound man to crawl onto plane
Tokyo: A Japanese budget airline apologised on Wednesday for forcing a wheelchair-bound man to crawl up a set of stairs to board his flight.
Hideto Kijima, 44, was returning last month to Osaka from a vacation in Amami, a small island off southern Japan, when an Vanilla Air employee told him that company safety rules banned anyone from carrying him up the stairs.
There was no lift at the small airport to move disabled passengers from the tarmac up to the jet’s door. Kijima, who is paralysed from the waist down, said in a blog he was forced to crawl up the stairs using only his arms.
The Asahi newspaper said the man pulled himself up some 17 steps. Vanilla Air, the budget arm of major carrier All Nippon Airways, said today it has apologised to Kijima.
“We’re sorry that we caused him that hardship,” a company spokesman told AFP, adding the carrier has since made it mandatory to have lifts for disabled patrons at that airport.
The airline had previously barred passengers who could not walk from boarding a flight at Amami because it was dangerous to carry someone up the stairs, the spokesman said. Kijima, a frequent traveller outside Japan, told Nippon TV on Wednesday he was “surprised” when staff said he would not be able to fly if he could not walk up the stairs.
“I wondered if the airport employees didn’t think that was wrong,” he added.
The incident comes after a public relations fiasco on United Airlines in April, in which a 69-year-old doctor in the United States was dragged off an overbooked flight .(AFP)
Australia outrage over kangaroo shot dead, dressed in leopard-print
Sydney: A kangaroo dressed in leopard-print has been found shot dead on an Australian roadside tied to a chair and holding a bottle of booze, sparking outrage over the killing today. The animal, wearing a patterned shawl and propped up with the ouzo drink in its lifeless arms, was discovered in Melbourne’s northeast by a passer-by.
“The kangaroo had been shot at least three times, prior to it being arranged in the chair,” said Victoria state Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning senior investigator Mike Sverns.
“This is appalling and immoral behaviour,” Sverns added. “It would have taken some time to stage the kangaroo in that position on the side of the road and we are certain that someone would have seen something, given the public area and traffic flow of this main road.”
In appealing for information, he warned that killing protected native wildlife was a serious offence with fines of up to Australian dollars 36,500 (USD 28,000) or 24 months’ imprisonment.
Investigators suspect the animal was killed at a different location and moved to the roadside, where a passer- by made the gruesome discovery. (AFP)
Chana dal: the latest entry in Oxford English Dictionary
London: Indian food essentials – chana and chana dal – are among the many new entries in the ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ (OED) unveiled on Tuesday.
Chickpeas (chana) and the split chickpea lentils (chana dal) join the vast list of more than 600 other words and phrases that the authoritative Oxford English Dictionary has deemed popular enough to be included in its quarterly update.
The clutch of words debuting in the world’s definitive guide to the evolving English language covers everything from lifestyle and current affairs to the educational world. (PTI)
