The BBC’s security correspondent, Frank Gardner, has criticised the treatment of disabled passengers travelling by plane after being left on an easyJet flight when it landed at Gatwick airport.
Gardner, whose legs were paralysed when he was shot six times by al-Qaida sympathisers in Saudi Arabia in 2004, said on Twitter he was left on the plane after all other passengers had departed because special assistance staff failed to turn up.
The journalist, who was returning from the French Alps, blamed the outsourcing group OCS, which is responsible for disability access at the airport, but also criticised easyJet for not using an airbridge that was standing within sight of the plane.
Once more stuck on empty plane at Gatwick Airport after all passengers off and heading home as special assistance have failed to turn up. pic.twitter.com/2fFgJFwGOQ
— Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) January 8, 2017
Dear @Gatwick_Airport @easyJet @Ocs_Assist Your failure to get disabled pax promptly off planes even AFTER all others r off is inexcusable.
— Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) January 8, 2017
For those kindly following my @Gatwick_Airport hassles the responsibility rests primarily with @Ocs_Assist but @easyJet ignored airbridge pic.twitter.com/qGdNK5WNfL
— Frank Gardner (@FrankRGardner) January 8, 2017
Speaking on the BBC News channel, Gardner said: “It happens so bloody often, that it’s just really tedious. Time and time again if the plane lands at a British airport and it’s not on an airbridge, disabled passengers like me have to wait for the ... high lift to come and get you off.
“Sometimes it arrives on time, which is great. But often, and last night was one of those times, when the minutes are ticking, all the passengers are off, they’re already going through customs, some of them will even have gone out to their friends and taxis and I’m still on the plane and the cleaners have started to come on board, and ground staff.
“I’m saying to the flight crew: where’s the lift to get off the plane? ‘Oh, we’ve called them several times, but they haven’t turned up.’ They did turn up eventually and they said: ‘Well, thing is, we’re understaffed.’
“OCS, which is the company that does this, say they’re not understaffed but the problem in this case was that easyJet, which doesn’t like using airbridges because it’s more expensive, I’m told, gave them only three days’ notice, saying: ‘We’re not going to use the airbridge, we’re going to use steps instead’”.
Gardner said it was not the first time he had been stranded on a flight.
“Nothing’s changed, it happens time and time again,” he said. “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to say disabled passengers shouldn’t have to get off at the same time as everybody else, it would cause a congestion.
“But once everyone else is off, get them off the plane. Don’t keep people waiting there so long that the cleaner’s already on the plane for the next flight. It’s not on. This is 2017. And it’s the UK. And we can do better than this.”
Gardner said he did not expect the experiences of disabled passengers would change unless “financial inducements or penalties” were introduced.
He said on Twitter that Gatwick airport, easyJet and OCS had all responded and pledged to investigate the issue of disabled passengers being stranded on flights.
A spokeswoman for easyJet said it was sorry Gardner had been delayed on disembarking. “We have taken this up with OCS who are the special assistance provider to all airlines at London Gatwick airport and are in contact with Mr Gardner about his experience.”
The Guardian has approached OCS for comment.
Last week, the award-winning Paralympic athlete and disabilities campaigner, Anne Wafula Strike, told the Guardian she was forced to wet herself on a three-hour train journey after the CrossCountry service failed to provide an accessible toilet.
Wafula Strike, 42, a British wheelchair racer who has no use of her legs, said she was “completely robbed of her dignity”.
