[SimonS1]

I read it through but couldn’t find the usual feeble excuses from John Holland-Kaye.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10820429/Disabled-BBC-reporter-left-stranded-plane-Heathrow-fourth-time-four-years.html

[cwoodward]

The ineptitude and inadequacy shown here by BA, their cabin crew and arrivals team is almost beyond comprehension.
What a bloody horrible airline !

At the very least the staff directly involved should be instantly sacked.
+
As the very minimum BA should immediately be banned by the regulator from operating the route for 6 months and be forced to pay decent compensationto the passenger.

This wont happen of course because no one has the guts to apply these penalties.
Increasing often I am happy that I no longer live in the UK where these these sort of attitudes seem to have become the norm.

[Tom Otley]

It would be interesting to know how often this happens.

We know about Mr Gardner because has many hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter. But I suspect most wheelchair users who have experienced this simply do so in silence.

I doubt the airports keep a track of such incidents, however.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Frederic

[TominScotland]

Just a thought and not questioning Mr Gardener’s awful experience but BA don’t currently fly to/ from Estonia, do they? The Daily Mail was never very good on reporting accuracy….

Also, a diatribe against BA is probably not warrented given that Heathrow have put their hands up on this…

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FormerBA, DerekVH

[GivingupBA]

A lesser story, but reminds me of one of my life lessons. Years ago I arrived at LHR with a damaged leg. I could only hop. The worst was getting up the bus steps onto the Railair bus for Reading. Impossible. I had to lay flat in the road and throw my backpack onto the bus. Then I had to haul myself up the bus steps with my arms. The point is, all the bus passengers could see this and all of them just sat there watching. Not one person moved a muscle to help me.

Ever since then I have helped every person I have seen struggling with heavy bags or whatever. It’s surprisingly common.

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PeterCoultas

[FrequentTraveller]

The Daily Mail article doesn’t name BA as the airline. For those who might not be aware, it’s the airport which is responsible for providing the special assistance from plane to onward transport. But the airline’s ground staff (or contract ground handler) would be responsible for unloading wheelchairs from the hold.

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FormerBA, Frederic

[cwoodward]

‘Tom in Scotland.
I would hardly describe my above post as any sort of diatribe given that it seems that both the BA cabin crew and landing staff walked away and left the chap to fend for himself.
I will stand-by my both my post and description of BA and its staff until proved wrong in my understanding that they all walked away and left the passenger stranded on the aircraft.

[cwoodward]

From enhancing the images on the Daily Fail website it looks to me that this maybe not a BA flight but I am unable to determine what airline or what ground handler if not.
If the flight was in fact not BA then I reserve my comments above for the airline and handlers concerned.

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Frederic

[Eastbourneguy]

Agree it is not acceptable, but what has the comment to do with BA?

Clearly, looking at the report and images, this is not a BA flight ?

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Flyboy18, Frederic, DerekVH

[TimFitzgeraldTC]

There are no direct flights from Tallinn into Heathrow. He would have had to connect somewhere so likely LH/KL/SK – possibly AY.

Did he have a wheelchair note in the booking? Still not an excuse if he didn’t – but if there wasn’t that remark in the booking it could cause a delay.

[Thegoodolddays]

I think people need to now what goes on at HEATHROW here. It is not the airlines that assist with the wheelchair passengers it is a company employed by Heathrow themselves. Stop blaming the airlines. As you can see by the photos this is not a BA plane so why bash BA or any airlines for that matter.

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Flyboy18, DerekVH, Eastbourneguy

[SimonS1]

[postquote quote=1214046]

This is correct. The DM article (and my OP) clearly refer to Heathrow.

Shame that John Holland-Kaye was full of himself when it got to getting Britain travelling again, however once the restrictions were lifted it all fell apart.

[Inquisitive]

The wheelchair bound passengers are to disembark after all the passengers are out.
Here it is likely the support stuff was waiting below aerobridge or even otherwise arrived a bit late, but in Heathrow context, is it a big deal reaching terminal after just 22 minutes?

[Stowage222]

A general point about cabin crew in this situation. No passenger is allowed to remain on an aircraft alone. At least 2 crew would remain on board unless a member of the ground team was present to assist the passenger. The problems with Heathrow’s ground handling for wheelchair passengers are legendary – and that was before the dreaded ‘vid!

[fsav81]

Yes, it was AY. But not their fault, responsibility of LHR.

[Author]

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