A disabled man claimed he was kicked off an easyJet flight minutes before take off because he ‘couldn’t walk to the toilet’.

Barry Dobner was due to travel from Manchester to Athens on April 3 with his wife Alison and friend Sheila.

They were looking forward to a sunny two weeks abroad and had wheelchair-friendly transport and accommodation waiting for them

But Mr Dobner, from Birkenhead in Merseyside, claims he was unceremoniously removed from the plane minutes before take-off after staff realised he would be unable to access the bathroom during the journey.

The 79-year-old has used a wheelchair since suffering a stroke 18 years ago.

The fuming couple slammed the treatment as ‘appalling’ and ‘ludicrious’, saying the other passengers were left ‘gobsmacked’ as they watched on.

Mr Dobner said: ‘I feel like just an object, I’m not a person any more.

‘When someone says that to you it knocks the stuffing out of you. It’s that sort of feeling.’

Easyjet said they are in touch with the couple to ‘apologise for this error and to refund them in full for their flight’.

Mr Dobner said the ‘whole plane was standing up watching what was going on’.

‘You can imagine how that made me feel.’

He claims easyJet had been made aware that he was a wheelchair user when he and his wife booked their flight. He said they were given assisted boarding and were seated in the 11th row for the four-hour flight

The couple say the trouble began when a member of cabin crew overheard that Barry had a portable urinal bottle in his hand luggage.

Mr Dobner said: ‘A stewardess walked by and she said “excuse me, do you have a urinal bottle?”. My wife said yes, in case of emergencies. She said “‘hang on a minute”; she came back and said “can your husband walk to the toilet”?

‘My wife said “no, my husband can’t walk at all”. They said “you have to get off this plane”. My wife asked why and they said “because he can’t walk to the toilet”.

Mr Dobner said the whole group got off the plane and had to be picked up from the airport by a friend to go back home.

His wife, 67, said: ‘We have flown with easyJet and with Ryanair before, and we have never had anything like this before.

‘What upsets me the most is the way he was spoken to. To treat a disabled person like that was appalling, especially when they had all the information beforehand. It’s just ludicrous.

Mr Dobner said: ‘I’ve always been a happy go lucky chap but this has knocked me back a bit. I feel like just an object, I’m not a person any more. My self respect had gone right down.

‘Since I had my stroke I’ve been in a wheelchair and I’ve been trying to keep not maudlin and carry on. But when someone says that to you it knocks the stuffing out of you. It’s that sort of feeling. Your confidence just disappears

‘I’ve flown six times since my stroke and it’s always been fine before this. They knew I couldn’t walk when they put me on the plane.’

The couple had planned the holiday as an early 80th birthday celebration for Mr Dobner.

They said they had lost around £2,000 due to the missed flight, and had raised the issue with their holiday insurance providers. They also made a complaint to easyJet.

Mr Dobner said: ‘We had hotels booked in Athens. We had a hire car paid for to pick us up at the airport, and we’ve lost £2,000. We’ve lost everything. We don’t know if we’ll get the flight money back. When I asked if we’d be reimbursed for the flight, we just got told to call easyJet.’

A easyJet spokesman said: ‘We are very sorry Mr and Mrs Dobner and their companion were unable to fly as planned with easyJet. We are in touch with Mr Dobner and his party to apologise for this error and to refund them in full for their flight and provide them with denied boarding compensation.

‘As an airline, we are committed to making easyJet accessible to everyone. easyJet carries around one million passengers requiring some form of assistance each year and our research shows that 87 per cent of easyJet passengers who require this are satisfied with the services we provide.’