Journalist criticises airport for treatment of disabled passengers
- Published
BBC journalist Frank Gardner has criticised Heathrow Airport for how it treats disabled passengers after being kept nearly two hours on a plane as staff said they had lost his wheelchair
When he landed on Saturday morning on a flight, Gardner's wheelchair was taken to the terminal, rather than the plane door, leaving him stranded.
He said: "That is your legs gone. It is a basic human right."
A Heathrow spokesman apologised and said it would investigate.
Gardner landed at the London airport after returning from a trip to Ethiopia to be told ground staff had "lost" his wheelchair.
It took 100 minutes for staff to locate his chair and bring it to the plane, finally allowing him to disembark.
Tweeting throughout the incident, he said he was "utterly sick" of it repeatedly happening when he lands at Heathrow.
I am so utterly sick of @HeathrowAirport ground staff 'losing' my wheelchair. Over 70 mins after landing back from Ethiopia I'm still stuck on an empty plane while they try to find it Just when is UK's premier airport going to stop treating disabled passengers this way? pic.twitter.com/f84wXCgXKB
— Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) March 24, 2018
He accused the airport of having a "casual disregard" for disabled passengers and said it was "a disgrace to British airports".
Odd that I can travel round the Middle East and elsewhere without a hitch. Yet time and again @HeathrowAirport loses my wheelchair on arrival. Now been on an empty plane 1.5 hours after landing. Believe me, I'm as bored of writing this as you are of reading it. pic.twitter.com/ZKQLFmGOIF
— Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) March 24, 2018
Mr Gardner has used a wheelchair since being shot six times by militants while reporting in Saudi Arabia, in 2004.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "There are hundreds, possibly thousands of others who have this experience and all we get is these platitudes from Heathrow Airport, calling me by my first name and saying they have created a case number for you.
"Nothing changes, it goes on and on happening and it is just so frustrating."
He added: "If you can't walk and your wheelchair has been taken away to the terminal, that is your legs gone, that is your mobility gone.
"It is a basic human right so I am pretty seething about it."
A Heathrow spokesman said: "We apologise unreservedly if the service Mr Gardner received today fell short of the experience we aim to provide to our passengers.
"We are working with the responsible airline to investigate what went wrong in this case."
- 9 January 2017