Humiliated by BA
Woman, 87, sat in wet clothes for 13 hours after crew refused to let her use loo
AN elderly woman had to sit in soaking wet clothes on a 13-hour British Airways flight after an air hostess refused to let her go to the toilet.
Kocharik Tsamouzian, 87, was flying from Los Angeles to London and asked to use the bathroom shortly after boarding the plane, which was delayed on the runway for 90 minutes.
But a BA stewardess repeatedly prevented her from doing so, even blocking her in the middle of the aisle.
As a result, a distressed Mrs Tsamouzian eventually wet herself. She did not have a change of clothes with her in the cabin and spent the rest of the flight in tears.
The incident comes as BA faces complaints for running out of food, not providing enough cots for babies and cutting perks for customers.
One group of schoolgirls even claimed they were denied access to free tap water while travelling back from a school trip.
Passengers have claimed that the flagship carrier is increasingly behaving like a budget airline despite typically charging significantly more than low-cost rivals such as Ryanair and easyJet.
Mrs Tsamouzian’s daughter Aida Behroozi, who lives in West London, said: ‘I went to pick my mother up from Heathrow Airport and she arrived in tears.
‘I was shaking with anger. She asked the air hostess over and over again if she could go to the loo but they kept telling her no because of health and safety reasons.
‘My mother was saying, “I’m an old lady you have to let me go”, but the air hostess stood in front of her seat blocking her from getting up.’
British Airways has acknowledged the incident, which hap- pened on December 22, but Mrs Behroozi said her mother has not received a proper apology or compensation.
She said: ‘British Airways are seen as the pinnacle of good service but this proves all that wrong. I will never travel with BA again.’
A spokesman for British Airways said: ‘Our highly trained cabin crew always work to make our customers as comfortable as possible, but Civil Aviation Authority safety rules stipulate everyone must remain seated with their seatbelts on after the aircraft has started moving.
‘The safety and security of our customers is always our top priority.’
In a separate incident, a group of schoolchildren claim they were denied free tap water while on a three-hour flight from Naples to London Gatwick.
Around 60 pupils from a school in Hampshire, many of whom were not carrying food or water, were returning from a geography field trip on February 23. They were told they could only pay for water by bank card, as BA banned cash payments earlier this year.
But many of them only had cash and were told that cabin crew could not supply free tap water from the galley.
Catherine Back, whose 14-yearold granddaughter was on the flight, said: ‘It really does beggar belief. Something is seriously wrong with British Airways if they cannot even supply tap water on their flights.’
British Airways, which said it does not have a record of the incident, insisted that it does provide free tap water from the galley if requested.
Complaints have poured in since BA stopped providing free sandwiches, snacks and drinks on flights lasting less than five hours.
The airline also came under fire for plans to cut legroom from 30 inches to 29 on some of its planes – an inch less than on Ryanair planes.
And furious parents have complained that their journeys have also been marred as BA failed to stock enough infant cots despite often booking them months in advance. One mother said she was given just one cot for her twin girls on a ten-and-a-halfhour flight to Mexico.