But on March 29, when Billie and her mother travelled from Sydney to Launceston, staff forced the disabled girl out of her wheelchair, sparking the mother to write a letter.
"We are regular travellers with Billie, so we have a fair bit of experience flying with an electric wheelchair," the mother explained in her letter.
"We have all the necessary paperwork [such as Dangerous Goods declaration and details of the chair and battery type] ready, and always arrive two hours before departure, allowing more check-in time than the recommended minimum 90 minutes for domestic flights."
However on this occasion, the mother said they were told that Billie could not use her electric wheelchair as they had did not have a lift near the gate.
Therefore Billie was strapped into a manual wheelchair, which had been modified for use on the plane.
Let's go play some boccia
Posted by Heike Fabig on Tuesday, 9 October 2018
"Jetstar was telling us there was no lift anywhere near the gate. But that's not what they tell you on their site where they say it is all electric wheelchairs," she told Daily Mail Australia.
"It's not taking her legs away, it's taking her independence away, because the wheelchair is her legs," she said.
"She's 12, she doesn't want to be strapped up and driven around, just like no 12-year-old wants to be strapped up and driven around."
Her mother believes what happened was a contravention of the Disability Discrimination Act.
"Billie cannot safely sit in these aisle chairs, and had to be strapped up in order to not fall out," she wrote.
"Keeping in mind that we had arrived super early as a courtesy to your staff to allow a smooth check-in, this meant that Billie was in essence strapped into a chair for about two hours, as if in some type of straight jacket.
"She was absolutely distraught and petrified the entire time.
"In between her sobbing she said 'they literally just took my legs away' and she requested that we take a photograph so that 'people can see what it's like, because they don't understand'."
A Jetstar spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia that they take the safety and comfort of passengers who require specific assistance very seriously.
"We are looking into Ms Fabig's and her daughter's experience to better understand what happened.
"We appreciate their boarding was frustrating and the travel could have been smoother and we are in contact with Ms Fabig about the experience."
