BBC journalist Frank Gardner has criticized UK airports for “constantly shit” after being stranded on a plane that had landed in Gatwick.
The security correspondent, who uses a wheelchair, had flown back to the UK with Iberia Express on Thursday night after covering the NATO summit in Madrid for the BBC.
In recent years, Gardner has been stranded on planes at UK airports in recent years and has often been forced to wait “long after” for other passengers before being able to disembark. This is believed to be the fifth such incident.
During the latter, he posted an image on Twitter from inside the plane that showed no other passengers in sight.
FFS no more! I just got back from a grueling week covering the NATO summit in Madrid and to my surprise, I’m still stuck on the plane in Gatwick. The Iberia crew has disappeared and a new crew has boarded. WHY are UK airports constantly shit when it comes to getting people with disabilities to get off their planes? pic.twitter.com/KuJz4eIJCy
– Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) June 30, 2022
He wrote: “FFS no more! I just got back from a grueling week covering the NATO summit in Madrid and to my surprise, I’m still stuck on the plane in Gatwick. The Iberia crew has disappeared and gone up a new crew WHY are UK airports constantly shit when getting people with disabilities off the planes?
He added: “It never happens abroad, only in the UK.”
Once he was able to leave the plane, Gardner wrote, “Now off the plane, only a 20-minute delay, which is slight, but ground operators said” no one told us there was a passenger. with a disability on board. “The airline, Iberia, insists they did. All in all, so tedious and boring!”
A Gatwick spokesman said: “We apologize for the delay that Gardner experienced on this occasion. We have been working closely with our support provider, Wilson James, to establish the reasons for this. At this stage, it appears that no there was no airline special assistance reservation for Mr. Gardner.
“However, as soon as we found out, the team responded and Mr. Gardner received assistance in 20 minutes. We strive to provide the best possible service to all passengers, so we will continue to investigate with Wilson James. and the airline in question. We apologize again for any delay that Mr. Gardner has experienced in returning from the NATO summit in Madrid. “
Last month a passenger with reduced mobility died in Gatwick. He fell while climbing an escalator after leaving a plane helpless.
In May, Gardner tweeted while sitting on a plane at Heathrow: “It happened again. Stuck on an empty plane at Heathrow Airport long after everyone else had left:” There is no staff to take the my plane wheelchair. “I’m VERY disappointed with @HeathrowAirport, as it seems that disabled passengers are once again the lowest priority.”
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A Heathrow spokesman then said: “We are very sorry for the delay Mr Gardner experienced yesterday. The airline’s ground assistance crew was delayed in unloading the plane and we apologize for the inconvenience this caused.
“All airport organizations are preparing to meet the strong demand of the summer and are working hard to ensure that everyone traveling through the airport can enjoy a smooth experience for passengers.”
Gardner, who was partially paralyzed after al-Qaeda gunmen shot him in Saudi Arabia in 2004, has worked for the BBC since 1995. He was contacted for comment.
Fazilet Hadi, Head of Policy at Disability Rights UK, said: “Many thanks to Frank Gardner for talking about this issue. For every person with a disability who tells their story about being abandoned on a plane, there are hundreds more that we don’t.The level of negligence and contempt of disabled airline passengers is really appalling.
“The high number of people with disabilities with poor service led the Civil Aviation Authority to write to airports, threatening to take action if passenger assistance for customers of airlines with disabilities did not improve. the situation is not improving and the Equality Act is being breached on a regular basis. Now the Civil Aviation Authority must act. “