An Upper Norwood woman has said she will sue the airline she claims threw her and her disabled husband off a flight to Thailand a week before take off.

Hazel Dean, 42, said airline Quantas discriminated against her 44 year old husband Michael Wright, because they would not make provision for his disability a frozen knee resulting from a serious road accident 18 months ago.

Quantas say their strict safety regulations dictate which disabilities they can accommodate, but Mrs Dean, who lives with her husband in Pytchley Crescent, says she and her husband have flown several times before with no trouble.

She also says the airline knew about her husband's disability when the flight was booked in November but later decided his presence had safety implications one week before take off on January 14.

She told the Croydon Guardian: "I am absolutely furious with them.

"It's one week before our holiday and we have been kicked off our flight."

Quantas has made no offer of a suitable alternative although it was their mistake, she said.

She added: "I am going to take this all the way because this amounts to discrimination."

She said Mr Wright normally has to buy his flight tickets at inflated rates, and is used to explaining his disability for the purposes of health and safety when making bookings.

"But what makes it worse and proves our point that they don't need do this is that another airline has offered to step in at the last minute, for the same price," she added.

Thai International operates the same sized 747 planes as Quantas. A Quantas spokes-man said that Mr Wright's leg would obstruct the isle in most of the plane's seats, contravening strict safety guidelines.

She added: "Mr Wright was offered a seat at the back of the plane but he said it wasn't suitable.

"I do not know why it wasn't until a week before the flight that they were told we had no alternatives."

She said she appreciated that in the future airlines could do more to accommodate disabled passengers.