BA Staff Allegedly Drops Passenger With MS on Head at LHR
Joe Cortez June 28, 2017
63-year-old passenger Belinda Castle, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, claims that two workers from passenger assistant provider Omniserv (the company through which the carrier works to provide assistance to disabled passengers) dropped her directly on her head. Castle allegedly had to wait in agony for 20 minutes while waiting for medical professionals to arrive.
Although Castle’s daughter Claire claims to have requested four workers to assist in moving her to a wheelchair, she said “Just two men turned up. We explained they would not be able to cope, but they ignored us.”
Castle has promised to file a lawsuit against British Airways, on whose watch she believes she was injured and humiliated.
To read more on this story, go to The Sun.
[Photo: Shutterstock]
Can be confusing. Fly from US amd the carrier is responsible at the US airpprt, but the airport at LHR. Easy to not understand the difference.
BA doesn't contract Omniserve to do this sort of service. As it is the norm with the rest of Europe, airports are required by law to provide assistance to passengers with reduced mobility, and they contract out this service themselves. The carriers - all carriers in Europe as a matter of fact - do not contract the PRM service to anyone, it's the airports. It's something that it's easy to get wrong for non-specialist press, but you'd expect Flyertalk writers to know better. For further info please refer to Regulation EC1107/2006. Article 6: To achieve these aims, ensuring high quality assistance at airports should be the responsibility of a central body. As managing bodies of airports play a central role in providing services throughout their airports, they should be given this overall responsibility. Article 7: Managing bodies of airports may provide the assistance to disabled persons and persons with reduced mobility themselves. Alternatively, in view of the positive role played in the past by certain operators and air carriers, managing bodies may contract with third parties for the supply of this assistance, without prejudice to the application of relevant rules of Community law, including those on public procurement. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2006:204:0001:0009:EN:PDF