Of Course It's Up To Them....

...they don't want a fire onboard their planes, you moron!

Darongkamas, who is unable to walk for long due to chronic sesamoiditis, argues it shouldn’t be up to Qantas to decide which aid someone with a disability can use. “Other ones are too heavy for me. I don’t need to tell [that] to Qantas. It is my choice,” she said.

And it's their airplane. If TfL think these type of batteries are too dangerous to have on the Tube, which travels along the ground, then they are certainly too much of a risk to have 30,000 feet in the bloody air! It's hardly Quatas' fault you chose to buy a cheap Chinese mobility aid - surely you could afford an airtravel-compliant one on your salary?  

Many airlines have tightened their restrictions on flying with lithium-ion batteries, often found in mobility devices, to try to avoid any possibility of a fire breaking out onboard. Qantas’s policy says mobility aids are permitted with lithium batteries of up to 300Wh, as long as the batteries can be removed from the devices and taken into the cabin, which Darongkamas says she always does.

However, they were suspicious of the manufacturer's claims and rightly chose to err on the side of caution - as I'm sure we all hope an airline would. 

A Topmate spokesperson told Guardian Australia the ES33 “is indeed designed and intended for use as a mobility aid” and that the battery was “certified and safe for air travel when handled in accordance with relevant regulations”. An Iata spokesperson said airlines have to “consider and balance the needs of the passenger travelling with the mobility aid and the safety of the aircraft and its passengers when deciding whether or not it can accept a mobility aid for transport.”

They have got the balance right here, but of vcourtse, the disability lobby weighs in with their usual entitlement.  

In July, before it closed Darongkamas’s case, Qantas apologised for giving her conflicting advice but said the information available still did not satisfy that the ES33 had been “manufactured as a mobility aid” to the required safety standards. Qantas said even though it “repeatedly liaised” with Topmate in China the manufacturer was unable to supply the required information about the battery’s test standards. Guardian Australia put this claim to Topmate, but the company did not directly respond to the question.

Gosh, I wonder why?