BA flight from London to Kingston diverted to Portuguese island after a fracas
Jamaican-born Kwane Bantu, 65, says he was forcibly restrained by cabin crew
The cancer sufferer says he wanted to move to business class to stretch his legs
A businesswoman from Leeds who tried to help him also removed from aircraft
Both were interviewed by Portuguese police and are trying to get back to the UK
British Airways says they moved Mr Bantu as he was verbally abusing the staff
Earlier it was wrongly reported that a 'couple' had been trying to get an upgrade
The man kicked off a British Airways flight for 'demanding an upgrade' was a cancer and diabetes sufferer who claimed he wanted to stretch his legs in business class - and is now stranded on an island in the Atlantic.
Kwame Bantu, 65, was an hour into the 14-hour flight to visit family in Jamaica when he began to feel dizzy and saw his leg swelling.
He then tried to move into business class, where he says he was 'ambushed' by six members of staff who tied him up by his hands and feet before allegedly dragging him back to his seat in economy.
'I was just trying to get some room to stretch my leg,' he told MailOnline. 'But nobody was helping me. They refused to listen about my medical illness and what I was going through. I was treated like a slave.'
Fellow passenger Joy Stoney, a businesswoman from Yorkshire, was thrown off the flight alongside the retired Jamaican man and abandoned on the Portuguese island of Terceira after trying to help him.
Ms Stoney, who was wrongly reported as being Mr Bantu's partner, told MailOnline how stewards told him to 'defecate in his seat' when he told them he needed the toilet.
British Airways told MailOnline that Mr Bantu refused to move from business class and verbally abused crew, so they 'helped him walk back to his original seat'. Neither of the passengers know where their baggage is or how they are to get home.
The man kicked off a British Airways flight for 'demanding an upgrade' was cancer sufferer Kwame Bantu, above, who was tied up and left in his seat after asking to stretch his legs in business class
Mr Bantu, from south
London, went on: 'They ambushed me. They tied my feet, my shoulders and my arms
and they left me in my seat.
'I
was completely humiliated, my human rights had been taken away from me. I
didn't even have the energy to fight them because my blood pressure would have
gone even higher.
'I
don't think I deserved that kind of behaviour. I can understand if they thought
I was going to be violent but [the restraints] stopped my blood from
circulating.
'It's
when some of the other passengers expressed their concern for me that they
stopped the plane and landed to kick us out.'
Joy
Stoney said she intervened after she saw staff members dragging Mr Bantu, who
had inquired about how much a seat in business class costs, through the plane
by his neck.
'The
way they restrained him was absolutely preposterous,' Ms Stoney, 40, told
MailOnline.
'They
restrained him by his shoulders via his neck and hands with straps. His ankles
were strapped and on top of everything, they handcuffed him.
'What
alarmed me the most was when he wanted to urinate. I know from caring for my
mother that if you restrain a diabetic like that, they're going to need the
toilet.
'He
was holding his crotch area for a while and it was horrible to see. I called
the steward manager to come see me and told her I would escort him to the
toilet myself.
'They
said, "He needs to defecate himself in the chair", and I think that
is utterly inhumane.
Mr Bantu, from south London, says he was 'ambushed' by six members of staff who tied him up by his hands and feet before dragging him back to his seat in economy class
Fellow passenger Joy Stoney, a businesswoman from Yorkshire, was thrown off the flight alongside retired Mr Bantu and abandoned on the Portuguese island of Terceira after trying to help him
'They refused to give him proper food. They only gave him a bread roll and a small cup of water.
Mr Bantu and Ms Stoney were stranded on the island without their luggage and have received no help or advice from the British consulate about getting home.
The incident occurred on flight BA2263 as it left Gatwick London for the Jamaican capital Kingston on Wednesday, military officials confirmed.
An air force spokesman said someone had filmed the spat on a mobile phone and that pair escorted off the plane would be questioned by PSP civilian police in Terceira.
British Airways told MailOnline in a statement: 'Caring for our customers is our highest priority and we continue to investigate all the circumstances surrounding this incident.
'We take great care to handle these difficult situations as sensitively as possible. Our cabin crew and one of our pilots repeatedly asked a customer to return to his booked seat in economy after he sat in our business class cabin without permission.
'He repeatedly refused, verbally abused crew members and disturbed other customers.
'As a last resort, our cabin crew felt they had no option but to restrain the customer in the interests of the safety of everyone on board and helped him walk back to his original seat.
The incident occurred on flight BA2263 as it left Gatwick London for the Jamaican capital Kingston on Wednesday, military officials confirmed
The incident occurred on flight BA2263 as it left Gatwick London for the Jamaican capital Kingston on Wednesday, military officials confirmed
Mr Bantu and Ms Stoney were stranded on the island of Terceira
without their luggage and have received no help or advice from the British
consulate about getting home
A spokesman for the PSP
police on the island of Terceira said Mr Bantu and Ms Stoney were not arrested
and the matter was closed as far as they were concerned.
He said the civilian
force’s only involvement in the incident had been to answer a request to take
the pair off the plane, adding: 'They left the plane without incident.
'They stayed on Terceira
as far as I know last night but I don’t know where and I don’t have information
on where they are now.
'They are free to do what
they want as there is nothing preventing them from leaving the island at any
time.'
Flight-tracking data shows
the plane left Gatwick for Kingston at 11.36am on Wednesday.
However at about 3pm it
started to divert from its intended flight path and double back for the island
of Terceira.
The plane then left the
island at about 7.15pm, returning back to London at 10.36pm.
It comes a week after
British Airways was criticised by the new President of Ghana for the 'shoddy'
way it treats customers.
In a major embarrassment
for the airline, the African country's leader criticised 'the quality of the
planes and the service'.
After landing in Terceira, the plane took off again at about
7.15pm, returning back to London at 10.36pm
He even accused BA of
'taking us a little for granted'. The comments follow a barrage of complaints
from travelers over poor service on BA flights.
It has been criticised
after it stopped providing free sandwiches, snacks and drinks on flights
lasting less than five hours.
The policy could now be
extended to long-haul flights for passengers in economy class.
The airline has 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.
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