AirNam apologises to disabled teen

AIR Namibia has apologised to the Walvis Bay teenager whose mother complained that the airline had barred her daughter from boarding a plane last week due to her disability.

The Namibian yesterday reported that Annastasia Helao's daughter, Victoria Martin (16) was denied a flight by Air Namibia, despite prior bookings which were already paid for, because the national airline does not cater for persons who use wheelchairs. Helao said the experience had left her daughter feeling hurt and humiliated as she was already facing similar rejection by her peers. Martin, who has been a paraplegic (paralised from the waist down), for two years, missed her appointment with her doctor last week because she could not travel from Walvis Bay to Windhoek in time after they were forced to switch to road transport. In a press statement issued yesterday, Air Namibia's head of communications, Paul Nakawa, said the airline regrets the incident, and apologised to the mother and daughter “for the unfortunate incident and inconveniences caused by being denied to board the ERJ 35 Embraer aircraft.