Gatwick Airport apologises to disabled passenger left on plane

Gatwick Airport has apologised to a disabled passenger who was left on a plane for more than an hour and a half after it had landed.

Victoria Brignell, who is paralysed from the neck down, said she was initially told it would take 50 minutes to help her from the aircraft.

Her treatment has drawn criticism from former Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson.

Gatwick Airport described Ms Brignell's treatment as "unacceptable".

Ms Brignell said: "I booked the help three months in advance, I reminded them two weeks ago, and still I didn't get the service that I should expect to have."

Her friend Sonia Sodha tweeted a picture of Ms Brignell on the plane.

Baroness Grey-Thompson said she took direct action when she suffered a recent similar experience.

She said: "I was flying to Berlin, the plane was two and a half hours late, but after waiting just over half an hour on board they couldn't give me any clear indication of when the assistance was going to come.

"My chair was at the gate, so I decided to get on the floor and pull myself off the plane."

BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner, who uses a wheelchair, said such situations were becoming "depressingly familiar".

"The airports seem to be slipping back. The level of investment and effort that goes into making money at these airports isn't matched by the effort and money that needs to go into getting disabled passengers off the plane at the same time as everybody else."

Gatwick Airport said it would launch an investigation into why Ms Brignell was left on the plane for so long.

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