Flight Refused For Epileptic

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31329, 28 March 1967, Page 14

Flight Refused For Epileptic

“The Press" Special Service

AUCKLAND, March 27.

Salvation Army officers have reunited an Australian mother and her 17-year-old son in Auckland.

The youth, Malcolm Palmer, a station hand from South Australia, was stranded in Adelaide. The Salvation Army said airlines refused him a passage to New Zealand because he is an epileptic. The internal airlines in Australia would not even fly him to Sydney and four airlines on the Tasman service refused to take him. The Salvation Army took Malcolm under its wing. He was boarded in Adelaide while army officers in Australia and New Zealand negotiated with the airlines. Lieutenant D. N. Griffiths, an Auckland Salvation Army officer, said yesterday it was only the intervention of Dr. V. J. Chapman, of the New Zealand Epileptic Society, that saved the day for Malcolm. ’ Air New Zealand flew Malcolm to Auckland accompanied by one of its industrial nurses, Sister L. M. Howe

The youth had an enjoyable trip. (“It couldn’t have been better”) and was met at Mangere airport by his anxious mother. Mrs Palmer said she was assured before she left Adelaide to come to Tauranga early this year that Malcolm would have no trouble getting an air passage. “He’s not a bad epileptic and I only told them about his health because I thought I was doing the right thing,” she said. “I didn’t want to alarm the passengers or the hostesses if Malcolm had a turn on the plane. They told me it would be all right but then they wouldn’t let him come.

“He has no family in Australia and I was frantic with worry. I wouldn’t have come to New Zealand if I’d known Malcolm couldn’t travel over.” Mrs Palmer said she had made inquiries and been told that many epileptics travel between Australia and New Zealand but they never mentioned their epilepsy to the airlines. Lieutenant Griffiths said the shipping lines had been approached but would not take Malcolm to New Zealand with out an escort.

“We were stumped,” said Lieutenant Griffiths. “As a last resort we were going to ask the Royal New Zealand Air Force to bring the boy across on one of its flights back from the Far East.

“Dr. Chapman, fortunately, was able to speak to the right people and get things moving. It’s ended happily, but at the cost of considerable worry and money.” Lieutenant Griffiths said there was nothing the airlines could do while the medical supervisor of Qantas refused to approve the boy’s flight. There was, he said, no epileptic association in Australia.