Image caption: Amy Paul was on her way from Heathrow Airport to Newcastle with her mother and assistant after a holiday in the US. Article information Author: James W. Kelly Role: BBC News
6 hours ago
A disability rights activist and her mother say they were treated like a “burden” by staff at Heathrow Airport and British Airways (BA) because of their disability.
Joe and Amy Paul returned to the UK on Monday after a holiday in the US, after which they took a domestic BA flight from Heathrow to Newcastle.
The couple said they were treated “undignified” at every stage, from going through airport security to boarding at Terminal 5.
BA and Heathrow Airport have apologised for how they treated the women and said they were investigating what went wrong.
Hartlepool-based Amy, who has more than three million followers on TikTok, uses a wheelchair full-time due to a neurological condition called Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS).
Joe, who lives in Rugby, walks with crutches due to a degenerative condition that affects his joints.
Image caption: Joe says his experience standing guard was “extremely painful”
“As soon as we walked through the door there were so many problems,” Amy told BBC News.
The couple arrived at the terminal 20 minutes before check-in opened, but Amy said her mother was “really suffering” from joint pain after the transatlantic flight.
She asked staff if they could help her find a chair for Joe, and they told her she could sit on the floor.
Amy said: “I went back to my mum and told her about it and luckily someone recognised her struggle and offered her a seat.”
“Shaking all over the place”
They said they waited 90 minutes to get through a security checkpoint designated for people with disabilities and related equipment.
Joe said he was asked to get out of his airport-provided wheelchair and hand over his crutches to be scanned – a standard procedure – but was not given a temporary walking aid.
Joe then tried to go to the front of the queue at security, but was told to stand at the back by security staff. He replied, “I don’t have crutches, I’ll fall over,” and another passenger cut in line.
After the scanner beeped, Joe said he was “wobbly all over the place” as he was scanned without his crutches.
Jo added that staff “lacked empathy” towards her.
They reportedly arrived at the gate about 45 minutes before the scheduled departure time to check on any special assistance available for boarding.
Amy said: “Instead of speaking to me, she (the staff member) spoke to my assistant and said in front of everyone, ‘Can they walk?’
“All she had to do was look at me and ask: ‘Is there anything I need to do to get on this plane?'”
Passengers said they were told by flight attendants that there was no record of pre-booked special assistance arranged in April.
“I told the attendant downstairs about five times that I needed an aisle chair, and they double-checked and said it would be ready and waiting for me when I needed to board the plane,” Amy said.
“My heart dropped.”
Amy also said she was “promised” she would be allowed to board first, which is standard practice for passengers who need assistance boarding a plane.
He said he was told that if he took the elevator down, a special needs staff member would board first and come to get him.
“As soon as I stepped out of the elevator I saw a group of people coming down the escalator and onto the plane,” Amy said.
She added: “My heart dropped.”
Of the two people needed to get Amy onto the plane, only one arrived with an aisle wheelchair.
“He apologized and was the only person who showed any empathy for me that day,” Amy said.
A second person eventually arrived and helped Amy board the already full plane, she said.
Image caption: Amy says a dog “would have been treated better”
“She had to walk through loads of people and you could hear people clicking their tongues and gasping as we went down,” Joe said.
She said the way passengers were treated because of their disability, from check-in to boarding, was “degrading”.
“You feel like a piece of meat, you feel like a burden,” Joe added.
Amy said she would like to see an agency established to hold organizations that provide services for people with disabilities more accountable.
“Deeply apologize”
A BA spokesman said: “We apologise for the unacceptable experience our customers had and we try not to underestimate the impact this has had on them.”
“We have contacted the customer directly to apologise and advise them that we are investigating the matter urgently.”
The company added that it is “committed to learning from these incidents.”
A Heathrow spokesman said: “We want Heathrow to be a welcoming, accessible airport for all passengers and it’s extremely disappointing that the service provided on this occasion did not meet our standards.”
“We are investigating with our accessibility services partner to understand what went wrong. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused.”