A disabled holiday-maker ended up sliding down stairs on his bottom to catch a plane at Manchester Airport.
Shimon Kaye, 67, from Little Lever in Bolton, can't walk unaided, having part of his left foot amputated eight years ago.
Earlier this month he went to Manchester Airport, some two-and-a-half hours before a flight to Treviso Airport, Venice to celebrate his wife and carer Marie's 60th birthday ahead of a cruise around the Mediterranean.
He booked 'Special Assistance' at Manchester Airport, since he uses a wheelchair or walking frame to get about.
But he says the airport official who was supposed to help arrived too late and struggled to operate a special wheelchair lift as his flight prepared to depart.
With the last call for boarding made, Shimon, a former private hire taxi driver, slid down a flight of steps towards the gate in Terminal 3 in desperation to make the flight.
He told the M.E.N. that the service provided to disabled passengers in other countries is 'brilliant', but he was left 'ashamed' of Manchester Airport.
Shimon, who has a daughter, described how he arrived at the airport with his wife on September 5.
The couple went to the special assistance desk in T3 where they were given a wheelchair so Marie could push Shimon through security to a lounge for disabled passengers.
"We arrived in good time but nothing was happening. Time was going on and I was worried about missing my plane as there were only 20 minutes to go to departure," said Shimon.
Then an official from special assistance, 'a young lad', came to help Shimon but repeatedly got his name wrong, calling him Mr Crocker, he said.
He was taken in the wheelchair to a special lift, Shimon says, but the official allegedly struggled to operate it.
"I can see the plane and everybody is on board. It should be a 30 second job to operate this lift but it must have taken him ten minutes.
"All he had to do was swipe his card and punch in a code. I don't know if he had forgotten the code. By now the last call for passengers has gone out," said Shimon.
"I was getting so frustrated that I was going to miss the plane so I decided to get my walking stick and sit myself down on the stairs and slide down on the stairs.
"There must have been 20 stairs. I held onto the banister and held onto my walking stick. I slid down on my backside until I got to the bottom. "
By the time Shimon got to the bottom the official had finally managed to operate the lift, and offered Shimon the wheelchair for the final 50 yards to the plane.
But Shimon was angry he refused it and 'hoisted' himself off the floor, struggling painfully to the plane with the help of his wife.
A member of the Ryanair cabin crew then came to help him climb the stairs into the jet.
"I was just so angry. My wife helps me with the Ryanair staff to get up the stairs. I'm in absolute agony," he said, adding that the experience had left him feeling 'humiliated'.
He went on: "When we go away, the service in other countries is brilliant. This is not a good advert for Manchester Airport.
"Nobody seems to care. They haven't got a clue. I'm ashamed of Manchester Airport to be honest with you," he said.
Shimon said the service at Treviso Airport, where there was an 'ambulift' on hand to help so he didn't have to negotiate the stairs, was 'fantastic' when he flew back on September 14, where he again encountered problems back at Manchester Airport.
He said he saw the airport's own 'ambulift' pass the aircraft twice but it didn't stop to assist him. Again, he says an airline official had to help him down the stairs.
Shimon, who suffers from diabetes, had to have half some of his left foot amputated eight years ago partly because of his condition and is registered disabled.
In July, the M.E.N. reported how another disabled passenger, Quamer Khaliq, 44, was left humiliated and in tears after being left on a holiday jet for two hours at Manchester Airport.
When approached by the M.E.N. ABM Aviation, which was awarded the contract to cater for the needs of disabled passengers at Manchester Airport in April, apologised and promised to investigate.
