Edinburgh Airport disabled passenger problem
03.08.08
A ten-year-old disabled girl was stranded on a plane at Edinburgh Airport because the only person trained to drive a special lift was in bed asleep, the Scottish Sunday Mail reports. Lucy Pratt endured an hour-long ordeal after airline staff admitted they could not operate the equipment.
Lucy's dad Alex, 39, offered to help lift her wheelchair down the steps of the plane but Edinburgh Airport staff said their insurance would not cover it. They said the only solution would be for Alex to carry cerebral palsy sufferer Lucy down the flight steps by himself. But her condition can cause her arms and legs to spasm, meaning carrying her would be too dangerous.
The other passengers on the fight waited for half an hour before the bus to the terminal left without the family. The airport finally decided insurance would allow them to carry a lightweight, folding wheelchair down the steps, and Lucy was lifted into the second chair and carried off the plane.
Alex, of Cumbernauld, told the newspaper that the situation was ‘shameful’. He said: ‘I told them we required a disabled lift when I booked and I called a few days before to remind them. So I was flabbergasted when we arrived and they said the only trained guy was in bed asleep. They were trying to make me carry Lucy down the rickety steps but it would have been dangerous for both of us so I refused. It was a farce.’
A spokesman for Edinburgh Airport said that they have now ensured disabled access to and from planes is available 24 hours a day, which under new EU rules introduced last month, they are legally required to do.
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