- Lottie Drew was upset with
airport staff pushing her wheelchair without asking. - She uploaded the interaction to TikTok, where she described it as a "horrible experience."
Lottie Drew posted the TikTok on October 3, showing a conversation between her and two staff members at London's
The footage showed Drew confronting staff, saying they had just pushed her in her wheelchair without asking permission.
A male voice responded that he had many years of experience helping disabled passengers.
"Well you should know about basic respect that you ask a
A female staff member then told her, "Please don't speak to my staff like that" and chastised her for "raising" her voice.
The conversation continued, with Drew asking again if the staff can ask a disabled person next time if they want to push their wheelchair.@chronically_lottie My horrible experience with special assistance- this is one conversation of many- after I asked the lady to ask next time she immediately shoved me off the the man- I was not being listened to- you would think that when your job is to help disabled people that you would be more educated and kinder- about 5 people pushed me without asking or even talking go me and they all got mad when I tried to correct it, they kept taking my items off me and doing things I could easily for myself, going so fast my friend with our suitcase trolly couldn’t keep up- I had a panic attack at security and had to keep ringing mum just to get through it and she spoke to them- when he spoke to my mum and realised who she was and my mum explained my disabilities he was ridiculously nice #specialassistance #Stanstedairport #chronicillness #disabled #wheelchairuser #airport #bpd #neurodivergent #disabilityrightsarehumanrights
♬ original sound - Chronically_Lottie
"It's not difficult," Drew said.
The female staff member, who identified herself as a team leader, then asked Drew, "Do you want me to take you back to the gate? Because I can."
Drew, interpreting this as a threat, then became more upset.
"You're now threatening me because I'm asking for basic human rights of being respected," she said.
The male worker then chimed in, telling Drew she was "going on and on and on" and calling her "one of the most awkward passengers I've ever met."
"I'm a wheelchair user," Drew responded through tears. "Surely I should know how disabled people should be treated."
Drew explained again that it can be scary to wheelchair users to suddenly be pushed without permission.
"I did," the female staff member argued. "I said to you, 'I am moving you now.'"
She then said: "Please don't make a mountain out of a molehill."
Drew's video amassed over a million views, with thousands coming to her defence. Many noted the difference between asking someone's permission and just informing them.
Drew said in a response that she had doubted her response but that the messages of support validated her feelings.
In a follow-up video, Drew said she hadn't filmed the interaction on purpose, but was thankful she had.
"It was horrible at the time, but I am OK now," she concluded.
She compared someone pushing a wheelchair unexpectedly like a person being picked up and moved if they were in the way.
"It's kidnapping, if they had done that to a kid, or any other human, it would be kidnapping," she said. "So why can they do it to us?"
A woman named Wendy Clark commented on one of Drew's videos, and appeared to identify herself as the female airport worker in the video.
She said she had put "over 30,000" disabled people on aircrafts, and "you have been the only one to reduce me to tears."
On October 8, Drew said she had received an apology from Stansted Airport, which asked her to go in to help educate staff about disability and mental health awareness.
Stansted Airport's head of media, Mark Davison, told Insider in a statement that Drew hadn't logged a formal complaint.
He said that she spoke to workers at the airport to help them "take any necessary steps" to improve. He didn't say what the steps might be.
Insider reached out to Drew for further comment.