Airport spat over crutch flight ban (2)

Another member of the airport's security staff, who did not give his name, said it is not up to them to decide if passengers can take items such as crutches on board, as this is down to the airline.

"Li's case might be caused by a communication failure between the customer and airline company," he said.

An Air China media officer, surnamed Xu, said that security regulations had not been strengthened recently, but noted that passengers are banned from carrying crutches as they are blunt objects which could cause injury.

"Basically crutches should be checked into the hold. It seems Li did not understand our regulations very well when he was checking in, and this led to some misapprehension," said Xu.

But, said Xu, passengers are also not allowed to use their own wheelchairs.

"Air China will provide passengers with wheelchairs and elevator help as long as they inform us 48 hours ahead of the flight. But Li did not do this, so we knew nothing about his crutches until he arrived at the airport," said Xu.

The plane was parked far away from the airport terminal with no air bridge, said Xu, so an elevator would be provided to lift Li to the aircraft.

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