“Wicked” star Marissa Bode spoke out against Southern Airways after she was allegedly stopped from boarding a flight because of her disability.
The actress and disability advocate took to her TikTok on Thursday, where she claimed, “I was denied boarding a flight because I’m disabled.”
“I wish that were clickbait. I wish that were false, but that is what happened,” she said. “I also hate that this kind of turned into an accidental series on my page.”
“I’m making this for my other disabled peers out there,” she continued. “Do not fly Southern Airways. I had never heard of Southern Airways before, it’s extremely, extremely small. And they think because they’re so small that disabled passengers couldn’t possibly fly with them.”
As Bode went on, she explained that she was set to fly on the airline as she had a speaking engagement in Pennsylvania. She said that, before the flight in-question, she asked crew for help in locating her virtual ticket — as she was having trouble finding it. Bode was then allegedly told that she was not allowed on the plane because of her disability.
“The two people at the gate look at me, and they are like, ‘Can you stand?’ And I said, ‘No,’” she said. “And they said, ‘I’m sorry, but because of that, we’re going to have to deny you boarding.’ They proceeded to tell me all the planes within this airline have stairs to get on the plane. Wild. Never heard of that before.”
She then slammed the airline for treating disabled people as “an afterthought,” adding, “Why, knowing that disabled people exist, which y’all clearly often forget, do you choose not to update your planes? And I was like, ‘This is blatant segregation.’”
@marissa_edob @Southern Airways ♬ original sound – Marissa
However, the airline’s contract of carriage does specifically note that “customers must be able to ascend and descend several steps to board the aircraft,” noting that aircrafts that hold “28 or fewer passengers” are not required under the Air
Carrier Access Act “to provide mechanical lift devices for enplaning or deplaning.”
Still, Bode defended that her manager spoke with the airline beforehand, noting “they fully assured that I would be set for my flight.”
In a statement to TheWrap, a spokesperson for Southern Airways said, “Marissa Bode’s experience is understandably upsetting, and does not reflect the standard to which we hold ourselves. We are investigating the incident, and will take all appropriate action, including making any necessary improvements to our processes and training. We have reached out to Ms. Bode to offer support and will work to address her concerns.”
On Saturday, Bode also issued an update after her video went viral, confirming she had since heard from a representative at Southern Airways, who she said was “mortified” and “apologetic.”
“They are doing an internal look on things on how this happened,” she noted. “They’re doing the right thing, in terms of, how to rectify it.”
@marissa_edob Replying to @Marissa ♬ original sound – Marissa
Watch both of Bode’s video statements above.
