Sophie Morgan's Fight To Fly follows TV presenter Sophie Morgan — whose social media posts about her wheelchair being damaged during a flight in 2023 went viral — as she campaigns for better rights and stronger protections for disabled passengers when travelling by air.
In her mission to make air travel more equitable for disabled people, Sophie has been on a journey that saw her visiting both Downing Street and the White House, but can she convince the air travel industry to make the reforms that are desperately needed?
Here's everything we know so far about the documentary...
Sophie Morgan's Fight To Fly release date
Sophie Morgan's Fight To Fly airs on Monday, July 22 on Channel 4 at 9 pm. It is a one-off documentary, which will also be available to watch via Channel 4 streaming.
What is Sophie Morgan's Fight To Fly about?
Here's the official summary of Sophie Morgan's Fight To Fly from Channel 4:
"In this powerful documentary, Sophie Morgan sends a group of disabled travellers undercover to expose the shocking service they can experience while flying. From wheelchairs being broken to a passenger having to drag himself on the floor to use the toilet, this important programme reveals the battle that disabled flyers face.
"Determined to inspire change, Sophie visits both the White House and Downing Street and also discovers an invention that could allow passengers to stay in their wheelchairs while flying. Sophie also becomes the first British female paraplegic to take a zero-gravity flight, to show that if you can make aerospace accessible, aviation should be too."
Is there a trailer for Sophie Morgan's Fight To Fly?
There is, and you can watch it below:
Channel 4 follows Sophie Morgan as she campaigns for airlines to be held accountable for poor treatment of disabled passengers.Sophie Morgan’s Fight To Fly – Monday 22nd July, 9pm on Channel 4 and streaming. pic.twitter.com/S4gmm3ce4aJuly 18, 2024
In the video, a voiceover explains that "disabled travellers are often treated like second-class citizens when they fly, and Sophie Morgan knows only too well." There is footage of a wheelchair travelling down a luggage chute from a plane, hitting the stopper at speed and bouncing over the top.
A clip from Sophie's social media posts shows her saying that she's "absolutely raging", and Sophie describes that her mobility device "was broken for the third time this year." The voiceover continues: "She demands change and asks fellow disabled flyers to show just how hard they have to fight to fly." A disabled passenger is interviewed saying "It just made me feel like a piece of cargo rather than a person." Another disabled passenger is shown dragging himself along the floor in the aisle of the plane to access the toilet. Sophie is shown saying "It's not just inhumane, it's dangerous".
The voiceover adds that Sophie is investigating "ground-breaking developments". Sophie is shown in a car saying "Well-behaved women seldom make history. I'm going to cause a fuss."
Sophie Morgan interview
How did your campaign begin?
"I suppose it started officially — if you want to call it that — in January last year, because I was flying back from America to the UK, and my wheelchair was broken by British Airways. I took to social media, as most of us do when these sorts of things happen, and the next day I happened to be going on Loose Women and they let me talk about it on the show, so that was the beginning of this campaign that I'm now calling Rights On Flights. But I know my story is just the tip of the iceberg, I know countless other wheelchair users and disabled people who've had a terrible time when flying, and it's not the first time a story has hit the press when something has happened, like [BBC security correspondent] Frank Gardner being left on board for too long — the list goes on."
What are some of the common problems that disabled passengers experience when flying?
"How long have we got?! It starts from the minute you book: sometimes airlines can be really difficult and refuse you travel if your wheelchair is a certain height, or a certain width, or over a certain weight, or if your battery is a certain size. And that's if the website is particularly accessible digitally anyway — this is not just about wheelchair users, there are problems across the board for all types of people, with different types of disabilities.
"Then there are things like costs — if you're somebody who lives and travels with a PA, everywhere you go you have to buy an extra ticket, there are no concessions given. Certainly not across the board, anyway: some airlines offer it but not all, and if they do they don't promote it.
"Then when you arrive at the airport, people talk about challenges with finding accessible toilets or navigating the spaces effectively. Going through security can be really invasive — obviously safety is paramount, that goes without saying, but you get asked very inappropriate questions and I think a lot of people feel that they have to give over all of their medical history just to be able to get on an aeroplane.
"If you're lucky enough to get on board, you then have problems with effectively giving over your independence — we have our devices taken away from us, the only form of transport where that actually happens. For many of us then we have to starve and dehydrate ourselves because we can't get to the toilet. And there's the risk of all our equipment getting lost or damaged, and a threat to our bodies as well because we're being manhandled by strangers who aren't necessarily well-trained — that's not necessarily their fault, it's just the system. The ableism is everywhere."
What can we expect from the documentary?
"The programme covers the campaign from the beginning, why it was set up, what I was trying to achieve and the different ways I try and go about that: for example, drafting new legislation that we hope will help the government do the right thing and improve the laws that don't protect disabled people effectively enough in the air when we fly.
"Then there's a look at some of the problems that other people are facing. To prove the point, and to justify the urgency of the campaign, we did some undercover filming with a group of wheelchair users. The social experiment worked, and we very much uncover many of the problems that we knew were happening. I'm delighted that it was successful, but I'm gutted that it happened — it's quite shocking what we uncover, but in many ways it's not shocking. Every time these stories come out, the non-disabled community kind of go 'oh my gosh, that is shocking, I had no idea' and we're like 'we're trying to tell you! This happens to us all the time!'
"I was getting very frustrated with the lack of change, so for me the thing that's really important about the doc is that we conclude there are things that can be done. We can't just keep saying, like we do in the UK with buildings, 'oh well, it's just the way it is, the building is old so we can't change it, oh well, the airline industry is the way it is so we can't change it' - I absolutely disagree, fundamentally, and we prove in the documentary that there are things that can be done to change it. There is very much an attitudinal barrier here that we need to break down."
How has the airline industry reacted to your campaign so far? Do you get a genuine sense that they want to make changes?
"What a good question. I think some do, some really do want to do better by their customers, some really understand the problem. They're listening and are awake and aware and want to make change. Others — not so much."
What would you like this documentary to achieve?
"I think greater awareness of the challenges that we face across the board from non-disabled people — to disabled people just being seen, feeling validated, having their experience represented authentically. I think ultimately I want this to land at a time where it influences some change — let's set the goal high! That the government recognise how important this is, and takes on board what we've put in what we're calling the Assisted Air Travel Act and changes some laws, you know? To have a tangible outcome would be amazing.
"I hope the airline industry sits up and takes notice, I hope they realise that we aren't going anywhere, that they have to meet the problems head-on. There's a real opportunity here for an airline to lead the way and be better, and I can't wait for that airline to really step up and embrace that. We'll see!"
